Application of a Decision Support System (SSD) In a Sub-Basin of the Duero River, Michoacán, Mexico

Water is a main element necessary for the development of the humanity. This resource is currently a non-renewable resource, in addition, it does not have the same uniform availability in time and space and the same happens with the need for it, this can generate regions and times of scarce water, if a this adds the effects of drought and the growing need we have a very important problem. That is why Water management is an indispensable process that conditions the very existence of cities and their development. Due to this, society has been need of the generation of engineering works to manage the water resource, but the lack of knowledge leads to establish deficient operating rules.

The determination of the efficiency of the rules of operation of a water resources system can be evaluated by the number of times in a period of time that it is not possible to meet the needs or demands of said system, this indicator is called operational drought, said indicator drought, unlike traditional indicators, compares the availability of water resulting from management against agricultural, industrial and domestic needs, which makes it an ideal indicator to evaluate decisions in management models.

This work was carried out with the objective of determining the rules of operation of the sub-basin of the river Duero Michoacán which has an area of ​​ 2,531.3 km2, this area has a strong economic dependence on water, the area devoted to agriculture represents the 54 % of the surface which is reflected in estimated deficit in 70hm3 / year. To determine these objectives it was necessary to make a model which considers the relationship of rainwater availability and groundwater availability along with the management of the water resource by means of infrastructure that by calibrating and evaluating it with a historical series allows determine the rules of operation.

The model used for these objectives was AQUATOOL, allowing to obtain the rules of current operations of the system, and its efficiency. An additional result is the management model itself, which can be used as a Decision Support System or if constant monitoring and updating of the information is maintained it can function as an early warning system for the risk of operational drought.