Pérdida de suelo y modificación de escurrimientos causados por el cambio de uso de la tierra en la cuenca del río Conchos, Chihuahua

Introduction : The change in the original land cover and the consequent erosion, are common problems in the Conchos river basin, with a direct impact for more than 1.3 million inhabitants. The problem is accentuated with excessive logging, wildfires and overexploitation and contamination of surface and underground water. Likewise, according to climate change forecasts, loss of biodiversity and modification of the hydrological regime in this important water producing basin are expected. Method : : The evaluation was carried out with the ERDAS Imagine V 2014 software, the spatial potential soil loss was generated with the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) and the spatial runoff was quantified using the Official Mexican Standar NOM-011-CNA-2000. Results : A reduction was detected on the forest and grassland zones, and an increase of agriculture and scrub surface in the Conchos river watershed. The soil loss presented a variable behavior, the class with more loss of soil was from 0.02 to 0.008 tm ha -1 for the years 1980 and 2000, and an increase of 0.01 for 2018, the maximum spatial runoff volume was to 348.35 M m 3 for 1980, and a reduction of 137.36 M m 3 for the year 2000 and a significant increase of 743.08 M m 3 for the year 2018. Discussion or Conclusion The use of climatic information from assimilated data, allowed to detect spatially the processes of soil loss and surface runoff volumes, being the year 2018 the most susceptible to soil erosion with 1689.15 hectares (has) affected, and with an average runoff volume of 379.17 M m 3 . According to the hydrograph in certain years, high rainfall does not require large volumes, because they are in situ readings, however through the present study the affected areas were detected spatially where the change in land use and rainfall affect the conditions, which will allow better control and conservation of natural resources.