Analysis of threats to landslide and flooding and its influence on social and environmental risk management in the watershed El Espinal, Pueblo Nuevo, Estelí

Abstract

This research was conducted in the watershed tributary of the river El Espinal Pueblo Nuevo, Estelí department, in order to delineate areas susceptible to landslides and floods and analyze vulnerabilities. The methodology included a proposal to conduct qualitative agroecological management taking into account the biophysical aspects of land, mapping of threats to landslides and floods and the active participation of community for the proposed guidelines based on problematic situations encountered in the study. The watershed has a high susceptibility to sliding 16.82 km2, corresponding to 19% of the watershed area being Macuelizo community which is in critical condition, was flooded delimit 2.40 km2 in area, with 128 homes at a shorter distance to 50 meters, being the highest risk communities La Calera, Rosario and Paso Hondo. The overall vulnerability was high in the economic, technical, ecological, institutional and physical aspects, being the communities that had very high vulnerability based on the indicators studied: San Jose, La Calera and oven. The proposed agroecological management zoned three areas that are protective zone and ecological restoration, rehabilitation area and agricultural development area. All these results with input and consensus of local actors and concerted five strategic guidelines for the prevention and mitigation of natural disasters actions were defined.