The present study applied a multi-criteria analysis to evaluate the best approach among six theoretical frameworks related to the integrated management of water–environmental resources, analyzing the frequency of multiple management criteria. The literature review covers the period from 1990 to 2015, with a notable presence of the theoretical frameworks of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), Ecohealth, Ecosystem Approach (EA), Water Framework Directive (WFD), and, to a lesser extent, the Watershed Governance Prism (WGP) and the Sustainability Wheel (SW). The multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods applied include AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process), TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution), and PROMETHEE (Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment Evaluations). Twenty-five criteria were analyzed, such as governance, participation, sustainability, decentralization, and health and well-being, among others. We started with five criteria for evaluating the hierarchy of the six theoretical frameworks using the AHP method. Subsequently, we again evaluated the five criteria using the TOPSIS and PROMETHEE methods to calibrate the results with the AHP. Then, using word counting, we evaluated the best approach, applying 10, 15, 20, and 25 more criteria. Our results indicate that the best integrated management alternative was the WFD, which fulfilled 47% of the management criteria. Second, with 45%, was the WGP, and third was IWRM, with 41%; less successful approaches to the criteria were demonstrated by the EA, SW, and Ecohealth methods. By applying this methodology, we demonstrated an excellent structured tool that can aid in the selection of the most important issue within a given sector.

Advances have been made in water resource investigation due to the implementation of mathematical models, the development of theoretical frameworks, and the evaluation of sustainability indices. Together, they improve and make integrated water resource management more efficient. In this paper, in the study area of the Duero River Basin, located in Michoacan, Mexico, we schematize a series of numerical indices of the Watershed Governance Prism to determine the quantitative status of water governance in a watershed. The results, presented as axes, perspectives, and prisms in the Axis Index, Water Governance Index, and Watershed Governance Prism Index, provide the conclusion that it is possible to establish and evaluate the Watershed Governance Prism Index using our numerical implementation of the Watershed Governance Prism theoretical framework. Thus, it is possible to define a quantitative status and evoke how water governance is being designed and implemented in a watershed.

The Mexico City region is a densely populated region in the world and has problems in guaranteeing the supply of drinking water to its inhabitants. Its groundwater flow system is subject to intensive exploitation. The water in the city is coming from a lot of sources as wells located in the city and springs in the ranges. The geology in the basin is mainly in lacustrine sediments; volcanic rocks shallow and deep and carbonate rocks in the depths.We collected water table values, major ions, and trace elements compositions from other research: wells (1999) and springs (2015) to investigate hydrogeochemical processes as well as to understand the hydrodynamics of groundwater and their chemical differences between ranges and plains. The groundwater chemical composition is related to the water-rock interaction processes.We applied two inverse model sections (PHREEQC code) in springs and wells. The inverse model section in the springs showed the dissolution of gypsum, biotite, SiO2 (aqueous), volcanic glass, labradorite, chloride, and precipitation of amphibole, kaolinite, and H2O (gaseous). Whereas the inverse section model in wells presents the dissolution of CO2 (gaseous), gypsum, biotite, volcanic glass, halite, plagioclase, olivine, and precipitation of kaolinite and pyroxene.Understanding the hydrochemical mechanisms of water-rock interactions eventually leads to the development of appropriate strategies for sustainable groundwater management.