Análisis geoespacial de parámetros fisicoquímicos del agua subterránea en el corredor minero del Cesar, Colombia

Contextualization: The decrease in the levels of surface water bodies and the growing demand for consumption in the northern regions of the Colombian Caribbean has generated a significant increase in the search for groundwater sources for its supply and use, but the lack of control and monitoring mechanisms for the quality of these water sources has generated negative effects on the health and wellbeing of the communities that benefit from the precious liquid. Knowledge gap: The lack of resources, plans and methodologies for the control and monitoring of the quality of groundwater sources in the department of Cesar by the environmental authorities has generated a lack of knowledge of the current status in many of its regions, so the implementation of new mathematical and statistical tools applied to the geoprocessing of existing and field data could help to generate new information of interest for the control and monitoring of this resource.Purpose: The objective of this research is to generate a strategy based on geoprocessing and spatial analysis of data using the simple krigging technique, using data of physicochemical parameters (pH, electrical conductivity and temperature) present in groundwater samples in municipalities of the mining corridor of the department of Cesar, in order to generate predictive models through heat maps, which allow observing the areas with the best potential for the use of these water sources in the region.Methodology: Three in situ samples were taken randomly from groundwater wells in the municipalities of Becerril, La Jagua de Ibirico and El Paso in the department of Cesar for laboratory processing and to determine their physicochemical parameters associated with pH, conductivity and temperature, after which the results were compared with the prediction models developed from a database of 200 sampling points in the study area, in order to compare the laboratory results with the proposed prediction model.Results and conclusions: The results of the geospatial analysis of the physicochemical parameters of groundwater in municipalities of the mining corridor of Cesar, revealed that the municipalities of Agustin Codazzi and Becerril have the largest number of active wells in their different uses (agricultural, industrial, domestic and public supply), in addition to having the best physicochemical conditions in terms of pH values, electrical conductivity and temperature, while the municipalities of La Jagua de Ibirico and Chiriguana have the worst conditions according to the physicochemical characteristics of the water samples analyzed, making the treatment alternatives much more expensive for their potential uses, and at the same time these groundwater sources are little desired by people for their various uses in these areas, so the active monitoring of the characteristics of these water sources is essential to know their potential use and preference by the people of the region under study.