Evaluación de los recursos hídricos subterráneos en la zona de Mulaló: análisis de técnicas hidrológicas físicas para la estimación de recarga de aguas subterráneas en la zona de Mulaló.

Abstract

Groundwater plays an important role in the hydrological cycle and serves as a supply for rural communities because it complements surface water. Therefore, it is essential to carry out studies on the water resources that countries have in order to know how to determine an adequate management of this medium, but previous studies carried out in Ecuador on groundwater are very limited. The objective of this research is to estimate groundwater recharge in the Mulaló area located in the Cotopaxi province. The aquifer analyzed covers an area of 200 km2. The estimation of the recharge of the Mulaló aquifer was carried out using the surface water balance method on the Cutuchi river basin, which covers the largest area of our study zone. The CHIRPS satellite database for precipitation and MODIS for evapotranspiration were used as reference data. Flow separation was also performed using the HYSEP model. The data used for this method correspond to three hydrological stations: Cutuchi in Caspi (H0854), Pansachi in Hda.Baños (H797) and Illuchi Aj Cutuchi (Cva Ambato) (H857). For the surface water balance method, maximum recharge values of 201.2 mm/year and deficit values of -81.2 mm/year were obtained. For the flow separation method, recharge values of 3744.4 mm/year were obtained for station H0854, 474.0 mm/year for station H797 and 20.5 mm/year for station H857. The variability of results between the two methods applied for the project is proposed to be due to the over- and underestimation of the information presented by satellite data. This study makes a major contribution to the information available on groundwater in the Mulaló area because in Ecuador there are few analyses to determine if there are groundwater sources, and studies to define the location of recharge zones and their values are scarce.