Impact of Land Cover Changes on the Availability of Water Resources in the Regional Natural Park Serranía de Las Quinchas

Abstract

Protected areas offer environmental goods and services to local communities, who have based their aptitude on the availability of water resources with practices associated with the legacy of their ancestors. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of changes in land cover on the availability of water resources in the Serrania de Las Quinchas Regional Natural Park (PNRSQ), located in the department of Boyacá, Colombia. The SWAT tool and the Corine Land Cover methodology were used between 2008 and 2017. In addition, data of hydrometeorological tests were used to determine the water behavior of the basin together with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM). The results show that after the declaration of the area as a protection zone in 2008, there have been changes in the land cover producing a greater availability of water resources and the partial restoration of the study area. Additionally, hydrological modeling allowed knows the behavior of the basin under different conditions. The resulting information allows decision-makers to evaluate the best options to guarantee water resources and generate strategies that allow communities to reinvent their way of production and adapt to ecosystem conditions without affecting their ecological functioning.