Vegetation Cover in the Water Mirror of the Baba Reservoir, Los Ríos, Ecuador

Abstract

The Multipurpose Baba is located to the North of Los Ríos Province, between the Cantons Buena Fe and Valencia. It has a hydroelectric power plant that generates 42 MW for the National Interconnected System (SIN) and the capacity to accumulate 90 million cubic meters of freshwater. The Baba Multipurpose Water Weed Management and Control Program (PMB), allows us to evaluate the behavior of the weed inside the reservoir, in the transfer and tributaries, as well as identify possible micro-environmental changes, control destabilization phenomena on the banks of the reservoir and streams downstream of dams. There are several species that we find in different points of the reservoir, being of particular importance, those floating species that can be moved by the watercourses from the higher positions in the rivers to the points where they can accumulate in the reservoir itself. The number of species found is quite low, with only three floating species with few individuals. 90% of the species found are rooted plants, restricted to the edges of water bodies, which have been reported as weeds. This paper intends to calculate the area of the water mirror covered by the “vegetation carpet” by means of remote sensors and to make an inventory of hydrophilic vascular species present in the reservoir.