Plan de restauración ambiental de la quebrada “Terremoto” en la parroquia Picaihua, cantón Ambato.

Abstract

The study objective of the present investigation was to formulate the environmental restoration plan of the Terremoto creek in Picaihua parish in Ambato. An environmental diagnosis of the current situation of Terremoto creek was carried out, for which flora and fauna inventories were carried out, using different methods such as transects and direct observation. In order to obtain data from the observation sheets, tours of the creek were carried out periodically. For the analysis of vegetation cover, three maps of the last 10 years were made, that is, years 2012, 2016 and 2021; in addition, the creek was zoned in high, middle and low zones. For the soil analysis, the zigzag method was used, where 25 subsamples were taken from the sectors of San Cayetano to Picaihua because it presents a uniform soil. For the water analysis, two samples were taken, one from Terremoto sector and another from Jerusalem sector. Both samples were duly labeled and sent to the laboratory. Finally, the semi-structured interviews with key actors were carried out with the neighborhood presidents surrounding the Terremoto creek and the president of the GAD Picaihua. The results indicate that there is water contamination by nitrites with values of 75 mg/l and 68 mg/l in the high and middle zones, respectively, due to domestic and industrial discharges, in addition to a low faunal biodiversity index of 1.33 and mean flora index of 0.41, 0.46, 0.26 and 0.28 both in the high and middle zones. In conclusion, the water of the Terremoto creek is contaminated and there are low and medium rates of fauna and flora. It is recommended to apply the environmental restoration model presented in this study.