ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION AND FLOODING HAZARDS: PROPOSAL FOR ITS MITIGATION AND CONTROL IN CENTRAL WESTERN ARGENTINA

A.I.VICH, R.OJEDA, D. COBOS, Y A PEDRANI; R OJEDA

Buenos Aires

Congreso; AIG; 2005

AIG

The city of Mendoza is located at the base of the pre-Andean foothills and it is the urban center of higher rank in the Argentine west center. The region is under strong pressures of anthropic origin because of the population rapid growth and expansion over the piedmont. This fact has generated significant changes in the dynamics of the piedmont ? urban ecotone, particularly in the rain-runoff relations. Some of these impacts are: open garbage dumps with unclear limits, arid extraction (rubble and soil), remotion of shrubs, grazing by domestic herbivores, natural and provoked fires, four-wheel vehicles, motocross, hunting, bird trapping and human settlements. The use of new marginal lands has noticeably speeded the degrading process. Buildings increase the elimination of the vegetal cover, the decrease of natural infiltration, augments the process of runoff formation and alters the natural system to evacuate the surplus. The solution found to diminish flooding hazards was the design of dams, diversion works and collectors through the urban area, without actions oriented to the control of environment degradation. The mitigation of the floods effect only through works located close to the city is a very critical and imprudent situation. In the search for alternatives to the traditional engineering conception, we carried out a project for the development of appropriate technologies and management of the arid piedmont ecosystem. The area is located between 32° 55? and 32° 58? south latitudes and 68° 53? and 69° 05? west longitude meridians, covering 800 km2 surface. The Program encloses restoration works for the reconstruction of the environment original conditions; rehabilitation for the recovering of the ecosystem functions, preservation and protection, diminishing of the flood hazard catastrophe. Our work was oriented toward reduction of water and sediments production through the correction of torrents, erosion control, forestation, management of habitat and wildlife, environmental education, promotion of participatory mechanisms and design of strategies and regulation policies. We propose that these are better alternatives considerably less costly and more efficient than the traditional solutions.