Effects of human extractive activities and recreational services on water quality

Abstract

This paper aims to identify the effects of extractivist productive human activities and recreational services-developed in land covers-on the water quality of the Dagua river watershed, located in the southwestern area of the Valle del Cauca department (Colombia). Methodologically, the article integrates quantitative and qualitative data through six phases: First, defining monitoring points for physicochemical water parameters and flow gauging, as well as of work areas for calculating environmental quality by land cover type; second, carrying out a physicochemical water parameters registry; third, building synthesis indexes of physicochemical parametrers; fourth, identifying the most representative extractive productive activities type and services in the watershed (through fieldwork and secondary data), calculating land cover percentages through spatial information on a 1:100,000 scale; fifth, assessing the impacts of productive activities present in land cover on water quality through the technique of a panel of experts; sixth, integrating all the methodological phases. The research showed that the low environmental quality of the water is associated with extractive activities such as extensive livestock farming on hillsides, technified agriculture, extractive mining (dragging material) likewise, service activities associated to the supply of country house for recreation and leisure, affect the quality and availability of water in the watershed.