Evaluación de calidad del agua de la cuenca del Tomebamba, en función del ancho de los bosques de ribera

Abstract

In this thesis is analyzed the effect that the width of the riverbank forest has on the quality of the water that drains superficially and subsurface from the Tomebamba’s river watershed located in Cuenca’s city, using the Water Quality Index of the National Sanitation Foundation (ICA-NSF) with the arithmetic and geometric equations. A total of three sites were evaluated, one without riparian forest 6m wide, and two with riparian forest 10 and 15m wide respectively, analyzing water samples at the entrance and exit of each of the sites, through wells excavated for water accumulation, during the months of June, July and August, where conditions of transition from rainy to dry season were presented. The capacity of each scenario to regulate the parameters that make up the ICA-NSF was identified using the analysis of variance statistical test (ANOVA) and boxplot. Subsequently, the variation between the input and output ICAs of each study site was calculated to correlate them using the Pearson correlation coefficient with their respective widths. The results obtained were also compared with the two equations used to calculate the ICAs. Water quality indexes were found between "GOOD" and "MEDIA" (the former being predominant) with values between 62.38 and 86.37, and the results of the geometric equation were lower. The conditions of Dissolved Oxygen and pH were the most unfavorable with minimum subindexes of 15 and 9 respectively. Negative correlations indexes close to -1 were obtained, reflecting a decrease of the ICA in the sites of greater width and with forest.