"Convergence between Regional Groundwater Flow Systems and Territorial Units: Towards Integrated Water Management"

Water management must be defined within a coherent territorial unit. Marismas Nacionales, internationally recognized as a RAMSAR site, harbors one of the biosphere's most extensive mangrove systems. This region constitutes a regional discharge zone of Regional Groundwater Flow Systems, which provide the primary source of continental water sustaining the development of mangroves and their subsequent ecosystems and strategic environmental services.

However, the current polygon of the protected natural area excludes the recharge zones that generate the Regional Groundwater Flow Systems, essential for the subsistence of these internationally significant ecosystems. The proper understanding and development of Tóthian Theory is key to integrating the uniqueness and ubiquity of the hydrological cycle and its environmental dynamics, which, together with the mapping of Regional Groundwater Flow Systems and territorial management units, enables the identification of critical points in the water-territory unit. This information and knowledge are essential for developing Environmental Impact Assessment processes to: i) strengthen the identification of current and future relevant consequences and impacts; ii) adjust the polygon, or polygons, of the protected natural area; and iii) redesign conservation measures both within and outside its territorial boundaries, ensuring robust hydro(geo)logical environmental characterization and evaluation that poses the correct questions to the answers manifested in the landscape. Therefore, mapping Regional Groundwater Flow System zones is essential for redesigning the legal-administrative framework and directly implementing integrated water management in the territory that safeguards the regenerative capacity of water as a system.