Evaluation of groundwater extraction by indirect methods in the region of Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, México: applying remote sensing and GIS

Abstract

In recent years, in the state of Chihuahua has implemented a capitalist economic model to continue to benefit the development of cities, based largely on agricultural activities. Recently, this seemed like a good strategy, until they appeared several difficulties, a very clear example is the severe drought that has occurred in the north of Mexico, declaring it as the "worst in decades", and this situation decreases possibility of good crops and force farmers to use groundwater intensively for irrigation of agricultural land. Over time it has become a problem because the groundwater has been significantly harmed. This study evaluates the use of groundwater extraction from the aquifer of Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico. For this purpose, we established the following methodology: i) a supervised classification on Landsat images to locate irrigated areas that were planted in 2011, ii) calculated the volume of water required for each type of crop (corn, beans, apple, sorghum), and iii) these results were compared with the volume of water concession in wells that supply these crops. The results reveal and prove the problem of overexploitation of wells for agricultural use in addition to the implications of environmental management.