Keywords

sustainable development, integrated modeling, ecosystem services, waste water irrigation, agricultural systems, Mezquital Valley

Start Date

26-6-2018 9:00 AM

End Date

26-6-2018 10:20 AM

Abstract

Unsustainable use of natural resources reduces socioecological systems resilience and impairs their ability to provide benefits and services to communities. An integrated management approach to complex agricultural land-use systems can address not only food security but also improve the nexus between water, soil and ecosystems services management towards a sustainable development. In water-scarce areas, irrigation is a valuable management practice that could benefit from strategies such as wastewater reuse. However, the use of untreated wastewater is widely recognized as a threat to public as well as environmental health. This is the case for the Mezquital Valley in Mexico, an area in which wastewater has been used for agricultural irrigation for more than 100 years. Hence, this study intends to model the current state of the ecosystems in the area, to determine the impacts of wastewater irrigation on the socioecological systems and develop scenarios to inform decision making process. We integrated socioecological (poverty, population density, public health studies, etc.) and biophysical data (water, nutrients, soil, contaminants) using spatially explicit models (InVEST, SWATMODFLOW) to quantify and analyze the socioecological system in a spatiotemporal integrative approach. Our results indicate areas with higher concentration of pollutants also correlated with socioeconomic indices as poverty, density population, disease rate. We identified scenarios to improve the quality of life and the use of natural resources in the area. The research explores the implications of management options for the sustainable development of agricultural systems and attempted to improve the understanding of complex interactions between wastewater irrigation and socio-ecological systems.

Stream and Session

C9: Integrated Modelling and Scenario Development as Analytical Tools for Exploring the Food-Energy-Water Nexus (FEW-Nexus)/

C8: Ecosystem Services in a Context of Global Change: Quantification and Socio-economic Evaluation


COinS
 
Jun 26th, 9:00 AM Jun 26th, 10:20 AM

Presentation Title: Spatio-temporal quantification of wastewater irrigation impacts in agricultural systems towards suitable development: An example from the Mezquital Valley, Mexico

Unsustainable use of natural resources reduces socioecological systems resilience and impairs their ability to provide benefits and services to communities. An integrated management approach to complex agricultural land-use systems can address not only food security but also improve the nexus between water, soil and ecosystems services management towards a sustainable development. In water-scarce areas, irrigation is a valuable management practice that could benefit from strategies such as wastewater reuse. However, the use of untreated wastewater is widely recognized as a threat to public as well as environmental health. This is the case for the Mezquital Valley in Mexico, an area in which wastewater has been used for agricultural irrigation for more than 100 years. Hence, this study intends to model the current state of the ecosystems in the area, to determine the impacts of wastewater irrigation on the socioecological systems and develop scenarios to inform decision making process. We integrated socioecological (poverty, population density, public health studies, etc.) and biophysical data (water, nutrients, soil, contaminants) using spatially explicit models (InVEST, SWATMODFLOW) to quantify and analyze the socioecological system in a spatiotemporal integrative approach. Our results indicate areas with higher concentration of pollutants also correlated with socioeconomic indices as poverty, density population, disease rate. We identified scenarios to improve the quality of life and the use of natural resources in the area. The research explores the implications of management options for the sustainable development of agricultural systems and attempted to improve the understanding of complex interactions between wastewater irrigation and socio-ecological systems.