Hydrologic Variability in the Atuel River Basin: Historical Climatology from the Eighteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Century

• Published in: Cuadernos de Geografía: Revista Colombiana de Geografía
• Main Authors: Rojas, Facundo, Prieto, María del Rosario
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Spanish
• Published: Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Bogotá - Facultad de Ciencias Humanas - Departamento de Geografía 2020
• Subjects: historical climatology; environmental conflict; Atuel river; climatic variability; not understood; Environmental geography; climatología histórica; conflicto ambiental; río Atuel; variabilidad climática; no se comprende; Geografía ambiental; climatologia histórica; conflito ambiental; rio Atuel; variabilidade climática; não é entendido; Geografia ambiental; Argentina; Pampa; Annals of Glaciology
• Online Access: https://revistas.unal.edu.co/index.php/rcg/article/view/75960

Since the mid-twentieth century, a conflict has developed on a national scale between the provinces of La Pampa and Mendoza (Argentina), producing a so-called decrease in the amount of water from the Atuel river. The main objective of the study is to try to reconstruct the hydrological conditions of Atuel river, from the end of the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth century and, in this way, analyze the claim of La Pampa about the water volume reduction, attributed to the intensive agricultural use made by Mendoza, in the middle basin. For this, a trend line of the Atuel river flows was created, using archival documents, traveler stories, studies of naturalists, and military incursions, in which the pre-instrumental period is especially considered. Subsequently, a comparison was made, based on reconstructions developed from other related disciplines such as dendrochronology, glaciology, and meteorology. The results confirm that the Atuel River presents a sustained decrease in its flow —although with pulses of floods and cyclical droughts— since the end of the nineteenth century. In the observed pulses, important dry periods appear during the nineteenth century, which even would have prevented that the basin flowed into its waters to the Colorado River, which was supposed to be the normal situation before 1900.Main Ideas: Review article that proposes a hydroclimatic reconstruction of the Atuel river based on the analysis of historical documentation, contributing to the debate on the interprovincial conflict between Mendoza and La Pampa, and the research about the appropriation of water from “irrigated land” vs “deserts”. Desde mediados del siglo XX, se ha desarrollado un conflicto a escala nacional, entre las provincias de La Pampa y Mendoza (Argentina), cuya causa es una supuesta disminución en la cantidad de agua proveniente del río Atuel. El objetivo principal del estudio es tratar de reconstruir las condiciones hidrológicas del río Atuel, desde finales del siglo XVIII hasta mediados del siglo XX, para ...