Saline intrusion assessment using the GALDIT index on the northern coast of Quintana Roo, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

Abstract

Rapid urbanization and population growth driven by global tourism in cities such as Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Tulum, and Puerto Morelos, in Quintana Roo, are major stressors in the Yucatan Peninsula aquifer. As this aquifer is the main water source for all anthropic and socio-economic activities in the region, management conservation actions must be carefully established. Being a coastal aquifer, saline intrusion must be addressed and analyzed. However, there are scarce previous works in this regard for the region, making it difficult to incorporate these elements into territorial planning and adaptive groundwater management. This work uses free-access data to characterize the saline intrusion of aquifers on the Quintana Roo north coast through the processing, adaptation, and cartographic representation of the GALDIT index. This approach identified areas of the aquifer that could show saline intrusion, and later, these results were contrasted with the water supply zones of the main coastal cities of northern Quintana Roo. These results are a novelty approach for Quintana Roo and are hugely relevant at the regional level. In addition, they can be used as input to promote water management strategies and territorial planning.