Cálculo de la recarga del acuífero de Tumbaco.

Abstract

Groundwater is one of the main supply resources in several countries of the world and its availability depends mainly on the processes of the hydrological cycle such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, infiltration of water into the soil, among others. For this reason, several studies have been developed to characterize water, estimate recharge and manage the resource. However, in Ecuador these studies are scarce. The purpose of this research project is to estimate the recharge of the Tumbaco aquifer located in the Distrito Metropolitano de Quito and extending over an area of 645 km2. To estimate the recharge of the aquifer, the flow separation method was carried out using the HYSEP model and a surface water balance was calculated. The data used for the flow separation method correspond to two hydrological stations: Guayllabamba DJ Pisque (H0148) and San Pedro en Machachi (M0159). The data for the calculation of the water balance were provided comes from the meteorological stations: La Tola (M002) and Iñaquito (M024). For the flow separation method, recharge values of 284.72 mm/year were obtained for station H0148 and 303.68 mm/year for station H0159. Using the water balance equation, the maximum possible recharge values were 707.2 mm/year for the La Tola station (M002) and 926.6 mm/year for the Iñaquito station (M024). The difference in the results obtained by the two methods suggests that there could be other sources of water feeding the aquifer