EvaluaciÓn de la condiciÓn ecolÓgica del rÍo zahuapan

Abstract

This research aimed to assess the Zahuapan river health through a holistic and watershed approach. The Rapid Bioassessment Protocols for Use in Streams and Wadeable Rivers, of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), was used as a support procedure to develop an integrated assessment, considering biotic, habitat and water quality partial assessments. In order to assess the river condition, two reference sites, located in a forest land, and nine perturbed sites, representatives of agricultural, urban and industrial lands, were selected in a geographical information system, with the support of field trips. The river biotic condition was based on families of benthic macro-invertebrates, the river habitat condition was assessed by using the habitat parameters established by the EPA, and the river water quality condition by developing an index from the nine measured physical and chemical parameters. The current river health was considered as the mode of the category of the partial assessments. While the river health of the reference sites was optimum, it was poor for all the perturbed sites, the worst condition in the index scale.