Using the soil and water assessment tool to simulate the pesticide dynamics in the data scarce Guayas River Basin, Ecuador

Agricultural intensification has stimulated the economy in the Guayas River basin in Ecuador, but also affected several ecosystems. The increased use of pesticides poses a serious threat to the freshwater ecosystem, which urgently calls for an improved knowledge about the impact of pesticide practices in this study area. Several studies have shown that models can be appropriate tools to simulate pesticide dynamics in order to obtain this knowledge. This study tested the suitability of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) to simulate the dynamics of two different pesticides in the data scarce Guayas River basin. First, we set up, calibrated and validated the model using the streamflow data. Subsequently, we set up the model for the simulation of the selected pesticides (i.e., pendimethalin and fenpropimorph). While the hydrology was represented soundly by the model considering the data scare conditions, the simulation of the pesticides should be taken with care due to uncertainties behind essential drivers, e.g., application rates. Among the insights obtained from the pesticide simulations are the identification of critical zones for prioritisation, the dominant areas of pesticide sources and the impact of the different land uses. SWAT has been evaluated to be a suitable tool to investigate the impact of pesticide use under data scarcity in the Guayas River basin. The strengths of SWAT are its semi-distributed structure, availability of extensive online documentation, internal pesticide databases and user support while the limitations are high data requirements, time-intensive model development and challenging streamflow calibration. The results can also be helpful to design future water quality monitoring strategies. However, for future studies, we highly recommend extended monitoring of pesticide concentrations and sediment loads. Moreover, to substantially improve the model performance, the availability of better input data is needed such as higher resolution soil maps, more accurate pesticide application rate and actual land management programs. Provided that key suggestions for further improvement are considered, the model is valuable for applications in river ecosystem management of the Guayas River basin

Building urban climate resilience through public health: Identifying strategies for integrated public health governance in Duran, Ecuador

In the poster it is presented the Case Study of Duran, Ecuador, a coastal city of 235.000 inhabitants which are exposed to annual flooding events that increase the risk of vector-borne and other infectious diseases. Duran is an in-dustrial satellite city of Guayaquil, the largest city of Ecuador, with a rapid population growth that lead to a large area of informal settle-ments on the city. Applying an integrated climate risk management and urban health focus, it is assessed the Duran strategies for reducing vulnerability to flooding, landslides and heat waves through a collabo-rative inter-sectoral approach among the health, urban, and scientific actors. Stakeholder engagement between municipality and researchers are providing evidence and building knowledge to implement “low re-gret” adaptation strategies and community active participation

Improving water management education across the Latin America and Caribbean region

Education can help secure inclusive and resilient development around water resources. However, it is difficult to provide the latest science to those managing water resources (both now and in the future). Collectively, we hypothesize that dissemination and promotion of scientific knowledge using students as central agents to transfer theoretical knowledge into practice is an efficient way to address this difficulty. In this study, we test this hypothesis in the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region as a representative case study region. First, we use a literature review to map a potential gap in research on education around water resources across the LAC region. We then review potential best practices to address this gap and to better translate water resources education techniques into the LAC region. Integral to these efforts is adopting students as agents for information transfer to help bridge the gap between the global state-of-the science and local water resources management. Our results highlight the need to establish a new standard of higher educational promoting exchange between countries as local populations are vulnerable to future shifts in climate at global scales and changes in land usage at regional scales. The new standard should include peer-to-peer mentoring achieved by jointly exchanging and training students and practitioners in water management techniques, increasing access to water data and pedagogic information across the region, and lowering administration roadblocks that prevent student exchange

An Operational Framework for Urban Vulnerability to Floods in the Guayas Estuary Region: The Duran Case Study

Duran is a coastal city located in the Guayas Estuary region in which 24% of urban sectors suffers from the effects of chronic flooding. This study seeks to assess the causes of Duran’s vulnerability by considering exposure, population sensitivity and adaptive capacity to establish alternatives to reduce its vulnerability to flooding. An operational framework is proposed based on the vulnerability definition of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and applying a census-based Index of Vulnerability, a geographic information system and local knowledge of urban development. A Principal Component and equal weighting analysis were applied as well as a spatial clustering to explore the spatial vulnerability across the city. A total of 34% of the city area is mapped as having high and very high vulnerability, mostly occupied by informal settlements (e.g., 288 hectares). Underlying factors were poor quality housing, lack of city services and low adaptive capacity of the community. However, some government housing programs (e.g., El Recreo), with better housing and adaptive capacity were also highly vulnerable. Limited urban planning governance has led to the overloading of storm water and drainage infrastructure which cause chronic flooding. Understanding the underlying causes of vulnerability is critical in order develop integrated strategies that increase city resilience to climate change

Estudio del impacto de los eventos el niño 1991-1992 y 1997-1998 sobre los rendimientos de cultivos de arroz y maíz en el litoral ecuatoriano

Este documento analiza series de climas mensuales de (1970-1999) de parámetros locales: precipitación mensual y temperatura media del aire y regionales: presión a nivel del mar en tahiti (pnm), temperatura superficial del mar en la zona niño 1+2 (tsm), índice de oscilación sur (ios), índice multivariado el niño oscilación sur (mei). Con la información proporcionada por los índices define los meses de más alta intensidad de los eventos el niño 1991-92 y 1997-98 en estudio, calcula con ayuda del sistema de información geográfica, la distribución espacial de excedentes de precipitación sobre las zonas agrícolas. A partir de estos mapas determina las áreas de riego agrícola en cultivos de arroz y maíz

Análisis, diseño e implementación de un sistema interactivo web que sirva como herramienta de aprendizaje para habitantes de una población con el fin de reducir la incidencia de dengue basado en el modelo bayesiano

En este artículo, se detalla el desarrollo de una aplicación web interactiva denominada “Combatiendo el Dengue”, que fue diseñada como una herramienta de aprendizaje para la prevención de la epidemia del Dengue en poblaciones vulnerables. La aplicación hace uso de un modelo de red bayesiana, para simular el razonamiento que un experto humano aplicaría para reducir la incidencia de la epidemia, y alecciona al usuario sobre las diferentes medidas de prevención disponibles utilizando una dinámica de juego. Los resultados obtenidos en el presente trabajo han sido validados con ayuda de un experto epidemiólogo