Unified matrix for environmental impact assessment applied to water resources, Chicamocha River case study

Abstract

Environmental Impact Assessment - EIA makes a preventive and corrective study possible to avoid damages resulting from anthropogenic activities. Different methodologies are used for implementing EIA considering professional criteria and applying qualitative and quantitative parameters; however, for water resources, the methodologies that allow a deep analysis are limited. For this reason, the goal of the study is to design a tool for Environmental Impact Assessment applied to the Vado-Castro sector through the Transparency Overlay Methods, Leopold, and Battelle-Columbus. The methods’ development was based on a diagnosis and monitoring of the water resource, articulating the characterization and quantification of the environmental impacts. Finally, a unified standard methodological tool was formulated which is applicable to the water resource sector and considers all the necessary criteria when carrying out a comprehensive EIA, as it is possible to demonstrate its applicability to the case of the Chicamocha River tributary area. Thus, the unified matrix becomes a fundamental tool to portray environmental public politics, providing means to recognize the current environmental conditions of water resources affected by anthropic activities. The results obtained will allow this research to be used as a reference source for academic and technical studies that require evaluating water resource effects, and as a tool that can be applied to another body of water.