Valoración económica de los impactos ambientales generados por la sedimentación aguas abajo del embalse de la central hidroeléctrica Ituango, ubicada en el departamento de Antioquia

Abstract

The economic valuation of goods and ecosystem services is a new field of study for the field of natural resources, in this document the economic valuation of the impacts generated by the sedimentation in the operation of the Ituango Hydroelectric Power Plant (CHI) was carried out, which is located in the northwest of the department of Antioquia and is located on the Cauca River. This was carried out in three phases, the first phase was developed by IBER software where a sediment simulation was carried out in three different scenarios with a maximum, minimum and standard flow, in the second phase the identification of the generated environmental impacts was developed by sedimentation and finally an economic valuation was carried out using the methodology of productivity change in the impacts already identified, where it was possible to demonstrate that the maximum scenario presents a higher sediment concentration throughout the area of influence, which brings with it a greater environmental impact consequently a higher amount in its economic valuation giving a total cost for each impact in this scenario of: modification of the quality of the soil with a value of COP $ 368,846,624, the loss and decrease of vegetal coverage taking into account account for ecosystem services within which water retention is with a value of COP $ 7,323,263,805, wood with a value of COP $ 1,090,808,100, carbon capture with a value of COP $ 68,449,508 and nutrient cycling with a value of COP $ 16,769,699, for the following impacts as the change in fish abundance evidenced a value of COP $ 277,891,735 and the change in fishing activities with a value of COP $ 603,487,898; therefore, the economic valuation of the environmental impacts in the maximum scenario gives a total value of COP $ 9,749,517,368.