Prioritization of sub-watersheds for the application of environmental policies in the Basin of Lake Cuitzeo

D. González. and M. Mendoza

CIGACENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES

EN GEOGRAFÍA AMBIENTAL

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

Background

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

MethodObjective of

environmental policies

Definition of ideal areas for the

application of conservation and sustainable use

policies

Partial Valuation

Partial Valuation Literature review

Construction of the criteria tree structure in the SMCE

module in ILWIS 3.3.

Establish the relative importance of criteria(Pairwise comparison)

Establish the relative importance of criteria

Aggregation in the municipalities

Rank order of the municipalities for

each policy

Definition of new criteria structure for each policy

for the choice phase

Problem formulation Assessment of the municipalities Ranking of the municipalities

Definition of relevant criteria

Definition of constraints

Construction of the indicators to asses the sub-

objectives

SMCE

Evaluate the overall Results

SMCE

Composite suitability index map for each policy

Evaluation of municipalities for each policy

Assessment of sub-watersheds Ranking of sub-watershedsFormulation

Assessment of sub-watersheds

Aggregation in sub-watersheds

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

Concerned policies

Find criteria to asses the objectives1. 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

Continous variables

Discrete variables

2. Standardization.

•Maximum•Interval•Goal

•Pairwise comparition•Rank order

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

Overall suitability assessment of the sub-watersheds for the conservation

policy (A) and sustainable use (B) Results

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

Ranking of sub watersheds

• 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 sub-watershed

Map of potential conflicts among environmental policies by sub-watershed

No conflict 1st orderNo conflict 2ndorder

Mixed 2nd order

Mixed 3th order

Sub-watersheds Municipalites

Total area in percentage by conflict area. Comparison between natural and administrative spatial units

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-watershedsConservation policy

Compensatory approach. Weighted summation

Ranking of municipalities

Sustainable use policyCompensatory approach. Weighted summation

Suitability assessment of the municipalities

Relative importance among criteria. Conservation policy

Relative importance among criteria. Sustainable use policy

Suitability assessment of the municipalities