Las evaluaciones ambientales en el aprovechamiento de aguas subterráneas

Abstract

An increasing interest on groundwater contamination and the associated environmental impact of its use is being observed in the last decades in developed countries. This fact has brought the development of several evaluation systems for the regional vulnerability of aquifers that allows the generation of sensibility and vulnerability maps. Because projects of soil and natural resources exploitation, as well as residues elimination, might produce non-desirable effects over the soil and groundwater quality and quantity, the consideration of project impacts has a paramount importance. Groundwater extraction might create several problems such as groundwater degradation, both in coastal and continental areas; decrease or extinction on groundwater storage, with the associated cost increment; negative effects on surface water and lakes; terrain subsidence and collapse, and ecological impacts over aquatic ecosystems such as wetlands