Annual Report 2023 UPM Forestal Oriental

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WATER RESOURCES

The objective of the hydrological monitoring programme is gathering information and quantifying the influence of forest plantations on water dynamics, as well as assessing the components of the hydrological cycle and water quality and obtaining useful information for the management of the resource and its long term conservation. Results show that forest crops in their adult phase make an efficient use of water, slightly higher to that registered for the previous use of the soil (mainly natural pastures), but always within an acceptable range that doesn’t affect water availability for other uses. No changes were observed in the trends of the analysed parameters due to the increase of forests in the hydrographic basins studied (low, medium and high coverage). In general the results of the parameters analysed are within the ranges considered appropriate (UNIT Standard 833 for drinking water). No agrochemicals were detected in numbers above minimum detection limits.