CIGA
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES
EN GEOGRAFÍA AMBIENTAL
Prioritization of sub-watersheds for the application of
environmental policies in the Basin of Lake Cuitzeo
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
Spot image 321, Dec 2006
•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
Method
Problem formulation
Formulation
Objective of
environmental
policies
Assessment
ofofthe
municipalities
Assessment
sub-watersheds
Construction of the criteria
tree structure in the SMCE
module in ILWIS 3.3.
Ranking
of sub-watersheds
Ranking
of the
municipalities
Definition of new criteria
structure for each policy
for the choice phase
Literature review
Definition of ideal
areas for the
application of
conservation and
sustainable use
policies
Definition of
relevant criteria
Definition of
constraints
Partial Valuation
Construction of the
indicators to asses the subobjectives
SMCE
Establish the relative importance
of criteria
Partial Valuation
Establish the relative
importance of criteria
(Pairwise comparison)
Aggregationininthe
subAggregation
watersheds
municipalities
Composite suitability
index map for each policy
Rank order of the
municipalities for
each policy
Assessment
of
Evaluation
of municipalities
sub-watersheds
for each policy
Evaluate the overall
Results
SMCE
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
Find criteria to asses the objectives
1. Find criteria, it should be:
Relevance
• be related to the assessment goal
• be sensitive and responsive to change in the system.
Analytic
• be theoretically founded,
Measurable
• be easy to detect, record, and interpret
• be cost effective
• be precisely-defined
2. Standardization.
• Maximum
• Interval
• Goal
• Pairwise comparition
• 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 subwatersheds 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
• The overall suitability index were assesed through 3 scenarios
-Supply, Demand, Decree
• Decision rules were implemented to construct an integrative suitability map
map.
Relative importance of criteria in each scenario
Decision rules to classify the integrative suitability map
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 subwatershed
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
Mixed 2nd order
No conflict 2ndorder
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.
Gracias.
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