This study was conducted in the Zamora Huayco (ZH) river basin, located in the inter-Andean region of southern Ecuador. The objective was to describe, through land use/land cover change (LUCC), the natural physical processes under current conditions and to project them to 2029. Moreover, temperature and precipitation forecasts were estimated to detail possible effects of climate change. Using remote sensing techniques, satellite images were processed to prepare a projection to 2029. Water recharge was estimated considering the effects of slope, groundcover, and soil texture. Flash floods were estimated using lumped models, concatenating the information to HEC RAS. Water availability was estimated with a semi-distributed hydrological model (SWAT). Precipitation and temperature data were forecasted using autoregressive and exponential smoothing models. Under the forecast, forest and shrub covers show a growth of 6.6%, water recharge projects an increase of 7.16%. Flood flows suffer a reduction of up to 16.54%, and the flow regime with a 90% of probability of exceedance is 1.85% (7.72 l/s) higher for 2029 than for the 2019 scenario, so an improvement in flow regulation is evident. Forecasts show an increase in average temperature of 0.11 °C and 15.63% in extreme rainfall by 2029. Therefore, intervention strategies in Andean basins should be supported by prospective studies that use these key variables of the system for an integrated management of water resources.

In Latin America, water resource management in some areas is difficult when all parts of a system are not considered (including its dynamism). Therefore, it becomes necessary to prepare instruments that facilitate management using a comprehensive approach. This study aimed to develop a methodology that allows one to conduct a prospective analysis of water management over delimited territories. The Zamora Huayco basin was chosen as the study area. This work included a survey of physical-natural, socioeconomic, and political-institutional variables, as well as a system structural analysis. Also, the generation of future scenarios and the strategic and tactical orientation for the integrated management of water resources. The results show that, of the 23 variables used, 19 were classified as key system variables. Most of the variables had strong impacts on each other, but at the same time these were highly receptive to changes. The behavior of change, proposed for the different uses and land cover in the basin for 2029, was considered as the objective scenario, highlighting the gain in forest areas and shrub vegetation. The strategic plans proposed in this methodology consider the structuring and collecting information in a single repository, creating communication channels between stakeholders and decision-makers.

Fecal sludge treatment is crucial in rural areas where basic sanitation is limited. In Tarqui Parish, located in the Azuay Province of Ecuador, many communities remain outside the reach of the sewage system, relying instead on alternative technologies such as septic tanks and cesspools. While these solutions offer temporary relief, they present significant challenges in terms of management and maintenance, often leading to environmental contamination and posing serious public health risks.

Este libro constituye una guía metodológica para estudios hidrológicos aplicados al diseño de puentes. Integra principios de hidrología, análisis espacial, procesamiento hidrometeorológico, caracterización de cuencas, estimación de precipitaciones y caudales, modelación hidráulica y evaluación de la socavación. El contenido avanza desde los fundamentos teóricos hasta la aplicación técnica. Incluye métodos de cálculo, herramientas computacionales y un caso práctico completo de un puente vehicular, que comprende la estimación de caudales máximos, la simulación hidráulica y el análisis de socavación. Un texto académico y de consulta técnica dirigido a estudiantes y profesionales vinculados con la infraestructura vial.

La caracterización hidrológica inicial de una cuenca constituye un paso crítico en cualquier estudio orientado al diseño de infraestructuras hidráulicas, particularmente en el caso de puentes, donde la estimación confiable de caudales extremos condiciona la seguridad estructural y la funcionalidad de la obra. Los rasgos espaciales y morfométricos de una cuenca tienen un fuerte control sobre su respuesta hidrológica a eventos de precipitación, al regular los procesos de creación, concentración y difusión de la escorrentía superficial. Investigaciones recientes subrayan que una representación deficiente de estos parámetros lleva a equivocaciones constantes en la estimación de caudales pico, particularmente en cuencas montañosas y de respuesta rápida. En estas últimas, mínimas alteraciones en la longitud del cauce, la pendiente o el área efectiva pueden intensificarse durante la fase de concentración del flujo (Qi et al., 2020; Sarker y Leta, 2025; Shekar y Mathew, 2024).

For hydrological parameterization in high-Andean catchments, it is necessary to understand whether near-surface hydro-structural soil properties can provide a surrogate signal of particle-size composition when direct texture information is sparse. This study evaluated the extent to which sand, silt, and clay fractions can be approximated from organic matter ($\mathrm{OM}$), bulk density (${\rho }_b$), and saturated hydraulic conductivity ($K_{\mathrm{sat}}$) in the Zamora Huayco (ZH) and Irquis catchments, southern Ecuador. A harmonized dataset ($n=44$) was analyzed through exploratory statistics, compositional assessment, correlation analysis, PCA, fraction-wise regression, $\mathrm{ILR}$-based modeling, AIC/BIC term reduction, sensitivity analysis excluding $\mathrm{OM}$, nested $\mathrm{LOOCV}$, and bootstrap-based uncertainty intervals. Among LULC classes, samples classified as paramo occupied a distinct high-Andean hydro-edaphic domain, characterized by a differentiated relationship between soil physical properties and hydrological behavior. PCA showed that the dominant covariance structure involved $\mathrm{OM}$, ${\rho }_b$, $K_{\mathrm{sat}}$, and the redistribution between sand and silt. The BIC-reduced $\mathrm{ILR}$ model provided the most balanced formulation, with positive nested $\mathrm{LOOCV}$ performance for sand, silt, and clay ($R_{\mathrm{LOOCV}}^2=0.147$, $0.704$, and $0.124$, respectively) and exact $100\%$ compositional closure after inverse transformation. Silt was the most stable predicted fraction, whereas sand and clay retained larger residual uncertainty, stronger tail departures, and partial compression of the observed variability. The proposed equations provide local hydro-pedotransfer support, although their predictive signal remains dependent on further refinement, uncertainty assessment, and external validation before regional application.