Inventory and characterization of wetlands in the Papaloapan River basin, Mexico

Abstract

Due to the physical and biological conditions arising from its geographical situation, a significant area of Mexico is covered by wetlands, which are legally considered to be a strategic reserve of fresh water under the responsibility of the National Water Commission. In this research, two levels of characterization were developed: the first at a scale of 1: 250 000 applied to the watershed level and the second at a scale of 1:25 000 at the wetland level. The first approach involved the development of two land use and vegetation maps based on classifications by satellite images. The images on one map were acquired in 1979 and the other in 2003. We thereby obtained changes in vegetation and land cover in one interval of 25 years. The second level included the detailed mapping of vegetation and land use within the Laguna de Alvarado wetland with images acquired in 2006. The comparison between the 1979 and 2003 coverage showed negative changes in hydrophytes, water bodies and forest classes. This is understood as a serious threat to the sustainability of wetlands.