Este documento presenta los 10 datos claves sobre la Plataforma Agua de Honduras, la cual es una iniciativa de innovación que ofrece información confiable para facilitar la toma de decisiones sobre el recurso hídrico de forma ágil y gratuita.

In the last three decades, Mexican water management policy has been reformed to include the participation of social actors in the decision-making process. Nonetheless, water governance receives intense criticism from those who consider that this participatory approach has decreased the efficiency in decision-making and others who believe that public participation is not efficiently included. To clarify this debate, we identify the fundamentals, the obstacles, and the challenges of the public involvement in water management through a systematic review of the literature. We found that the restrictions of such involvement are most likely associated with: 1) characteristics and context of the participants; 2) different levels of information and power; 3) institutional arrangement and rules of the process; 4) the lack of resources to participate, and 5) the lack of motivation and political will. The most critical challenges are: a) decentralization; b) the combination of technical and non-technical knowledge; c) the strengthening of capacities for participation, and d) the influence of the government in the decision-making process. With these elements, we elaborate an analytical framework and come up with the recommendations to improve public participation in water management in Mexico.

La construcción de embalses produce transformaciones en las características y funcionamiento de las cuencas hídricas a diferentes escalas. El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar las formas de ocupación y usos del suelo en la cuenca urbana embalsada del Lago del Fuerte (Buenos Aires, Argentina), las cuales son producidas por la superposición de actores, lógicas e intereses diversos. Además, se evalúan las problemáticas asociadas al embalse emanadas de las dinámicas propias del sistema socio-ecológico. La investigación combinó el uso de técnicas cuantitativas y cualitativas para el tratamiento de información primaria y secundaria. Se realizó observación documental –periódicos locales, normativa vigente a escalas nacional, provincial y local–, relevamiento y observación directa en campo y entrevistas a informantes calificados. Se evidenció la superposición de actores y marcos regulatorios sobre el área de estudio, así como modificaciones en el uso del suelo con el consiguiente desarrollo e intensificación de problemáticas sobre la calidad del agua del embalse. Se torna imperioso profundizar en el desarrollo de una visión integral del territorio y de los recursos hídricos que articule a su vez los diferentes actores involucrados en el uso, regulación y gestión del área de estudio.   Abstract The construction of reservoirs produces transformations in the water basins features and functioning at different scales. On the one hand, this work aims to analyze the occupation modes and land uses in the Lago del Fuerte dammed urban basin (Buenos Aires province, Argentina) produced by the overlap of diverse stakeholders, logics, and interests. On the other hand, it aims to evaluate the problems associated with the reservoir arising from the dynamics of the socioecological system. The research combined the use of quantitative and qualitative techniques for the analysis of primary and secondary information. Documental observation was carried out with local newspapers and current regulations at national, provincial, and local scales, a survey, direct field observation, and interviews to qualified informants. The overlapping of stakeholders and regulatory frameworks on the study area was evidenced. Also, modifications of land uses, together with the development and intensification of problems on the water quality of the reservoir were detected. The results show that it has become compelling to work on a comprehensive vision of territory and water resources that articulates simultaneously different stakeholders involved in the use, regulation, and management of the study area.  

El presente documento está basado en metodologías y estrategias de las buenas practicas del PMBOK, donde se parametriza la manera más eficaz de desarrollar proyectos. A su vez es un documento que contiene información académica para dar soporte y documentación técnica a un proceso en el cual la Alcaldía Municipal de Guateque, busca desarrollar para vigencias futuras un proyecto de optimización de infraestructura y redes de servicios públicos esenciales con la construcción de un tanque de almacenamiento de agua potable para ampliar la cobertura del servicio y contribuir con el mejoramiento de las condiciones de calidad de vida de los habitantes. | Alcaldía Municipal de Guateque Boyaca | Corporación Autónoma Regional de Chivor - Corpochivor | Especialista en Gerencia de Proyectos | Especialización | This document is based on methodologies and strategies of the good practices of PMBOK, where the most effective way of developing projects is parameterized. At the same time, it is a document that contains academic information to provide support and technical documentation to a process in which the Municipal Municipality of Guateque seeks to develop for future use a project to optimize infrastructure and essential public service networks with the construction of a drinking water storage tank to expand service coverage and contribute to the improvement of the quality of life conditions of the inhabitants.

A presente tese teve como principal objetivo desenvolver um Índice de Qualidade de Água Subterrânea para consumo humano (IQASCH) para ser aplicado em áreas de aqüíferos cristalinos sob uso agrícola, tomando como área piloto a Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio São Domingos (BHRSD) – Noroeste do RJ. Para que o objetivo fosse alcançado: (i) poços escavados e tubulares da BHRSD foram monitorados de 2004 a 2008 em relaçãoo a diversos parâmetros; (ii) foram identificados os stakeholders, seus perfis poluidores, suas percepções sobre a qualidade do recurso hídrico subterrâneo e (iii) analisadas características naturais e alterações antrópicas que estão comprometendo o consumo humano das águas subterrâneas da BHRSD. Após estudo detalhado da BHRSD, as fases para construção do índice foram implementadas: 1) seleção de parâmetros para compor o IQASCH; 2) normalização dos dados pela lógica booleana; 3) estabelecimento de classes de ocorrência de amostras. A partir da soma de ocorrência em cada classe equivalente, os poços foram distribuídos em suas respectivas categorias de qualidade de água: Ótima, Boa, Precisa de Tratamento (agrupa amostras com algum parâmetro em inconformidade em relação aos padrões de potabilidade adotados) e Imprópria (agrupa amostras com algum parâmetro tóxico em inconformidade em relação aos padrões de potabilidade adotados). Os resultados indicam que os stakeholders dos recursos hídricos subterrâneos da BHRSD são os usuários dos setores da agricultura, do consumo doméstico, do comércio e serviços e da pecuária. A agricultura é atividade/grupo que mais polui as águas da BHRSD e os parâmetros que mais vezes não atenderam aos padrões de potabilidade em todo o período monitorado foram: coliformes termotolerantes, turbidez, nitrato, manganês, ferro e dureza. O IQASCH agrupou predominantemente as amostras monitoradas na classe Precisa de Tratamento, cerca de 80%. Poucas amostras foram classificadas como Impróprias para o consumo humano, apenas 15%. Nenhuma amostra, porém, foi classificada como Ótima, sendo essa ausência um efeito direto da definição dessa classe, que é rigorosa. Isso significa dizer que em nenhum ponto amostrado todos os parâmetros apresentaram valores iguais ou menores que o Valor Guia. Somente 2,5% foram qualificadas como Boa. O IQASCH mostrou-se ser restritivo e condizente com a realidade, já que diversos parâmetros foram encontrados em inconformidade com a legislação adotada na área estudada. | Tese (Doutorado em Geologia) - Instituto de Geociências, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro. Orientadores: Gerson Cardoso da Silva Junior, UFRJ; Rachel Bardy Prado, CNPS.

En la presente investigación se proponen estrategias para la mejora de la gestión integral del recurso hídrico asociadas a los principios de la gobernanza del agua, en la cuenca media del río Chicú, ubicada en el departamento de Cundinamarca. Para la creación de las estrategias se realizó una revisión bibliográfica amplia, así como un trabajo de campo en la zona de estudio, la cual permitió aplicar una entrevista a veinte personas ubicadas en distintos puntos de la cuenca, distribuidos entre comerciantes, ganaderos, agricultores y habitantes. La entrevista fue clave para la recolección de la información, necesaria e indispensable para identificar los factores principales que afectan la gestión integral del recurso hídrico, así como a los actores claves que se encuentran involucrados sobre la cuenca. | The following research proposes strategies for the improvement of the integral management of the hydric resource associated with the principles of the water governance, in the middle watershed of the Chicú River, located in the department of Cundinamarca. For the creation of the strategies, a wide bibliographic review was carried out, as well as a fieldwork in the study area, which allowed an interview to be applied to twenty people located in different points of the watershed, distributed among merchants, cattlemen, farmers and population. The interview was key to the collection of information, necessary and indispensable to identify the main factors that affect the integral management of the water resource, as well as the key stakeholders that are involved in the watershed.

Groundwater availability is at the core of hydrogeology as a discipline and, simultaneously, the concept is the source of ambiguity for management and policy. Aquifer yield has undergone multiple definitions resulting in a range of scientific methods to calculate and model availability reflecting the complexity of combined scientific, management, policy, and stakeholder processes. The concept of an aquifer-yield continuum provides an approach to classify groundwater yields along a spectrum, from non-use through permissive sustained, sustainable, maximum sustained, safe, permissive mining to maximum mining yields, that builds on existing literature. Additionally, the aquifer-yield continuum provides a systems view of groundwater availability to integrate physical and social aspects in assessing management options across aquifer settings. Operational yield describes the candidate solutions for operational or technical implementation of policy, often relating to a consensus yield that incorporates human dimensions through participatory or adaptive governance processes. The concepts of operational and consensus yield address both the social and the technical nature of science-based groundwater management and governance.

Groundwater resources in Queensland (Australia) have been depleting in many aquifers for the last 100 years and natural recharge processes are not replenishing these resources at the rate of extraction. At the same time, the need to address carbon emissions to reach global climate-change targets is becoming increasingly recognised. Plentiful deep fresh groundwater is available but is difficult, and typically uneconomical, to access due to the high costs of borehole drilling and completion. The emerging concept of ‘enhanced water recovery’ (EWR) hypothesises that carbon dioxide (CO₂) injection into the deep aquifers will increase pressure, making groundwater more easily available at shallower depths across a broad region while simultaneously contributing to a reduction in CO₂ emissions. One example where this has been proposed is in the Great Artesian Basin’s Surat Basin in Queensland. The findings from a series of focus groups held with different stakeholders, including agricultural producers, rural residents, and urban residents, demonstrate how different groups perceived the risks and benefits of injecting CO₂ as part of the carbon capture and storage (CCS) process to raise borehole water levels. The paper discusses the trade-offs that the different stakeholder groups found more acceptable. The significance of this research is that it will be the first to publish public responses to an emerging technology that has the potential to provide multiple benefits in terms of climate-change mitigation and groundwater use.

The relevance of groundwater science to water-utility operations is analysed from a broad international perspective, identifying key concerns and specific opportunities for the future. The strategic importance worldwide of water utilities assuming the role of lead stakeholders for integrated groundwater resource management, recognizing their often considerable technical know-how and highly significant data holdings, is emphasized. Concurrently, the utilities themselves will need an ever-closer appreciation of groundwater-system behaviour if they are to manage efficiently their water-supply and wastewater operations.

The challenges of a changing world, which are progressively threatening sustainable use of groundwater resources, can only be rationally and effectively addressed through close collaboration between experts and practitioners from different disciplines. Furthermore, science and management need to build on stakeholder opinions and processes in order to generate useful knowledge and positive outcomes in terms of sustainable and equitable groundwater management. This essay provides a discussion of the status of and vision for participatory and inter-disciplinary approaches to groundwater evaluation and management as well as a conceptual framework and relevant research questions that will facilitate such approaches.