Water Balance in Basins of the High Andean Zone of the Province of Cotopaxi

To define the behavior and comprehensive management of water resources in the high Andean zone, it is necessary to understand their functioning from different points of view: hydrology, geology, hydrogeology, among others. This work presents a water balance as support for the comprehensive management of the Cutuchi sub-basin, in addition to the characterization of its main tributary the Pumancunchi where its main problem is incomplete information and the alteration of water dynamics due to anthropogenic activities such as agriculture, livestock, industrial and domestic areas. Applying surface-velocity, Penman Monteith and Infiltration methods, the results of flow rates, evapotranspiration, infiltration and surface runoff are presented. We found in the study area a flow rate of 3.1 m3/s in the dry season, evapotranspiration of 98.33 mm/year, infiltration of 58.1 mm/year, determining a water balance in the Cutuchi sub-basin, a surplus of 42.4 mm in the wet season, and a deficit in the dry period from 5.5 mm/month to 140.2 mm/month, identifying a variable water behavior where it is true that if the precipitation is less than the evapotranspiration, a deficit is obtained mainly in the months of May - October that belong to the dry season of the high Andean zone; which indicates a considerable increase in water deficit that would indicate droughts in the study area.