The Natural Resources Information Center (CIREN) of the Ministry of Agriculture presented to the Water and Water Resources Commission of the Regional Government the results of the project "Water supply and demand in the Limarí and Choapa basins", which translates into a digital visualizer that allows determining and projecting the evolution of the supply and demand of irrigation water.
The exhibition, organised by CIREN and coordinated by the Seremi of Agriculture, introduced the regional councillors who make up the Commission for Water and Water Resources to the web platform implemented by the organisation, which allows irrigators, farmers, researchers, students, academics and authorities to develop a predictive model of flows, transfer results and improve decision-making when developing and planning agricultural activity.
“At the request of the Water Commission, CIREN professionals presented this viewer in order to illustrate the results of this project, which is a public access platform whose fundamental purpose is to be able to provide information on agricultural statistics, water statistics and also allows projections of the water behavior of the Choapa and Limarí basins, which is very relevant from the point of view of the analysis."s," commented the Seremi of Agriculture, Christian Álvarez.
In order to understand its impact on the agricultural sector, the Water Commission of the Regional Government requested a presentation of the project, in order to disseminate this important initiative in view of the current water shortage situation in the region, generated by Climate Change.
Darwin Ibacache, vice president of the Water and Water Resources Commission, referred to the importance of the data provided by this CIREN platform for decision-making, “As advice, what the Seremi of Agriculture, specifically CIREN, showed us regarding the supply and demand of water resources for irrigation in the Choapa and Limarí basins is extremely important. Mainly this platform that they offer for free, which provides accurate and reliable data regarding this supply and demand that is very useful for farmers, for the Surveillance Boards of the respective rivers, which made us quite happy, we see that it is a user-friendly platform that will undoubtedly allow us to make better decisions with data.”
Along the same lines, Javier Vega, regional councillor for Elqui and also a member of the commission, pointed out that, “What we have developed with the Water Resources Commission is very important in order to understand the projects that CIREN has developed in the region, especially this platform that allows us to have more information regarding water conditions, especially irrigation issues. They have given us a lot of relevant information specifically to visualize water conditions in terms of irrigation, both for subsistence farmers and for other types of farmers.”
Digital Display
An instrument that has been generated with the support of the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID) and the Paloma Reservoir System Water Community (CASEB), which includes the incorporation of geomatic tools, which will allow estimating the irrigated surface and predicting the average daily flows in the headwater basins, based on multi-temporal monitoring of snow cover in the Choapa and Limarí river basins, whose greatest water requirement is related to fruit and vegetable production.
Data that can be reviewed on the website https://anidlimarichoapa.ciren.cl/, a viewer where you will find the information collected in the study. In this tool you can browse by downloading layers of information, irrigation zones, canal network, delimitation of irrigation zones and more. You will also find a dynamic data board, maps and methodological documents of the research.
