Overview
Water scarcity is a significant threat to societies worldwide. During the dry seasons of 2016–2020, the Gallinas River in San Luis Potosí State, Mexico, experienced a complete loss of its downstream flow — events never registered before that severely impacted the locality’s economy and caused the flow to disappear at the Tamul waterfall. This research focused on identifying flow variations in different river sections to investigate the causes.
Model Setup
The EFDC model was used and calibrated based on data from measurement campaigns conducted from 2017 to 2018. The model was applied under five different inflow boundary condition scenarios: 1, 5, 30, 60, and 1000 m³/s. Data collection included in situ measurements of flow and speed, photogrammetry, bathymetry, and digital elevation modeling.
Key Findings
The study concludes that the most likely reason for the flow variations in the river is the influence of the geology, which would generate specific infiltrations. The geological configuration of the Gallinas River reveals why the river appears to carry a considerable flow upstream while losing it downstream — explaining the temporary disappearance of the Tamul waterfall.