Paper Title
Groundwater, Drought, Land use changes and Water Human Rights in Central Chile
Abstract
Groundwater is the largest source of unfrozen fresh water on the planet and it’s a worldwide depletion considerable has been estimated. Groundwater deficit is evident in some areas of Central Chile due to high agricultural production, irrigation and semi-arid conditions. Some catchment has a high exploitation degree and the groundwater´s sustainability has been exceeded. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate the relationship between groundwater and the causes that provoked it in Central Chile. This research will contribute to water resources sustainable development in Chile.
NDVI Normalized Difference Vegetation Index was calculated using LANDSAT and MODIS images. SPI Standardized Precipitation Index was calculated using 20 rain gauge station and It was processed 20 observation wells and groundwater rights dataset. Then, the land use was generated in 2002 and 2017 through Random Forest Classifier. Groundwater decreased significantly while rainfall was not significant. NDVI decreased in the agricultural land. While a water scarcity and drought were showed, the groundwater pumping increased and some farmer land´s crops were affected. The agricultural land and bare soil increasing a bit, but the natural vegetation decreased. Finally, was evidenced groundwater drought and your overutilization for irrigation.
Keywords - Groundwater, Drought, Land Use Changes, NDVI, Chile