TITLE:
Hydrological Assessment for Watershed Health in a Headwater Sub-Basin of the Rio Grande de Arecibo, Puerto Rico
AUTHORS:
Nilda I. Luhring-González, Jorge R. Ortiz-Zayas, Maritza Barreto
KEYWORDS:
Socioecological Assessment, SWAT, Land Cover, Sustainability
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Geoscience and Environment Protection,
Vol.11 No.12,
December
12,
2023
ABSTRACT: The Río Grande de Arecibo (RGA) Watershed is a crucial source of water
for the residents of the Island of Puerto Rico, including those living in the
San Juan metropolitan area that are supplied by the North Coast Super Aqueduct.
It is also significant for forest conservation, with five state forests
providing around 10% of the watershed’s
protected forest area. However, land cover changes in the region are putting
the watershed’s sustainability at risk, as is the case in many places
worldwide. This study takes an integrated socioecological approach to examine
environmental changes in a headwater sub-basin of the RGA Watershed over a 20-year period (2001-2021). Using the Soil
and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), we assessed the impact of land cover
changes on water sustainability. Our findings indicated that the headwater
sub-basin of the RGA showed a decrease in both Forest Land and Range Land and
an increase in Urban Built-up Land cover 20 years later. The results from SWAT
provided the information to establish a “less healthy” condition 20 years
later, due to the increase in the surface runoff metric and a decrease in the
lateral flow metric. The study provides a
baseline for future socioecological watershed studies and sustainable
management actions, and its novel approach, combining geospatial analysis with
hydrological modeling, could be applied to other watersheds, particularly in
the tropics, where such studies are scarce.