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Prioritization of sub-watersheds for the application of environmental policies in the Basin of Lake Cuitzeo. CIGA. CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES EN GEOGRAFÍA AMBIENTAL. D. González. and M. Mendoza. Background.
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Prioritization of sub-watersheds for the application of environmental policies in the Basin of Lake Cuitzeo CIGA CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES EN GEOGRAFÍA AMBIENTAL D. González. and M. Mendoza
Background • Lake Cuitzeo Basin is an important ecologic area, where is a strong pressure on the natural resources by the productive activities. • Its necessary the implementation of the environmental programs to keep the equilibrium among the productive activities and natural resources. (conservation and sustainable use territorial policies) • It becomes necessary to identify and recommend to the authorities which are the priorities areas to apply the environmental programs
Objective • Identify the priority water-sheds for the implementation of selected environmental policies to support sustainable development in the Lake Cuitzeo Basin
Study site • Center of Mexico • Michoacan state • 4,000 Km.2 • Transmexican Volcanic Belt • Lake Cuitzeo (Ecological importance) • 55 watersheds • 28 Municipalities • Urban expansion • High migration rates Spot image 321, Dec 2006
Method Assessment of sub-watersheds Ranking of sub-watersheds Formulation Aggregation in sub-watersheds Assessment of sub-watersheds
Concerned policies According to the local environmental law, the main objective for the application of the environmental policies are: Conservation • To preserve the environmental elements that allow maintain the environmental services • To minimize the conflicts between the productivity activities and the conservation programs Sustainable use • Define the areas where the productive programs can be developed according to the distribution of the land capability • To minimize the deterioration of areas containing a well preserved natural capital
Findcriteriatoassestheobjectives • 1. Findcriteria, itshould be: • Relevance • be related to the assessment goal • be sensitive and responsive to change in the system. • Analytic • be theoreticallyfounded, • Measurable • be easy to detect, record, and interpret • be costeffective • be precisely-defined • 2. Standardization. • Maximum • Interval • Goal • Pairwisecomparition • Rank order Continous variables Discrete variables
Criteria structure for assessing the suitability for conservation policy
Criteria structure for assessing the suitability for the sustainable use policy
Example. Suitability assessment of the municipalities Forest stability Stable productive areas
Results Overall suitability assessment of the sub-watersheds for the conservation policy (A) and sustainable use (B)
Ranking of sub watersheds Selected criteria for the assessment of the sub-watersheds • Supply • -Connectedness of suitability classes • -Percentage of cover of the best performance cells per spatial unit. • Demand • - Relative poverty index • Decree • - Percentage of area assigned for conservation and sustainable use by the EMPLCB
Theoverallsuitabilityindexwereassesedthrough 3 scenarios • -Supply, Demand, Decree • Decision rules wereimplementedtoconstructanintegrativesuitabilitymapmap. Relative importance of criteria in each scenario
Potential conflicts in sub watersheds • Potential conflicts among the implementation of the environmental policies are identified based on the comparison of the suitability indexes for each sub-watershed
Map of potential conflicts among environmental policies by sub-watershed
Total area in percentage by conflict area. Comparison between natural and administrative spatial units Sub-watersheds Municipalites No conflict 1st order No conflict 2ndorder Mixed 2nd order Mixed 3th order
Conclusions • The multi-temporal analysis through a long and a short term of time allows identifying the trends of the land use change for support the implementation of the environmental policies. • Three different orientations of the municipalities were identified: 1) Oriented to productive activities, 2) Oriented to conservation activities and 3) Mixed oriented • The prioritization of the sub-watersheds could be a practical information that can be used as support to planning the implementation and the monitoring of the environmental programs in the framework of the EMPLCB • Intermunicipal efforts have to be implemented in the framework of Integrated Watershed Management.
Ranking of sub-watersheds Conservation policy Compensatory approach. Weighted summation
Ranking of municipalities Sustainable use policy Compensatory approach. Weighted summation
Suitability assessment of the municipalities Relative importance among criteria. Conservation policy
Suitability assessment of the municipalities Relative importance among criteria. Sustainable use policy