Drought risk assessment in regulated Andean basins influenced by climatic variability and climate change. Study case in the Machangara River Basin

Water scarcity hydroclimal conditions tend to affect the hydrological services offered by the Andean basins causing severe impacts to the different hydrodependent sectors. These conditions have become a real challenge for decision making of water managers in times of droughts. This project aims to evaluate the risk of droughts in regulated Andean basins influenced by climatic variability and climate change. For which forecasts and hydroclimatic projections will be carried out in the short and long term that will be incorporated into an optimization environment for the allocation of water to the different consumptive, non -consumption and environmental demands, which will explore different aspects for the distribution of water, such as the physical characteristics of the water resources system, the socio -economic and vulnerability of the water users, and the criteria of experts in the water sector. The results of this process will serve to evaluate alert levels of drought risk today and the future that will alert the periods of water shortage to the water managers. The Machágara river basin located south of the Ecuadorian Andes was chosen to test the tools and methodologies raised in this project. The project results will serve the scientific community through publications and could support the definition of indicators that help for short and long term decision making in water management in the Machágara River basin.

XVII UNIVERSITY COMPETITION FOR RESEARCH PROJECTS