Land use and coverage of the binational basin

This article describes the most important aspects of land cover and use in the Mira-Mataje binational basin, in which the most representative cover is dense forest (figure 1).

For this study, there are 3 levels of information on land cover. In the first level, figure 2, a higher percentage stands out in the forests and semi-natural areas with 60% corresponding to 671,797.48 hectares, where the forests, areas with herbaceous and / or shrub vegetation and open areas, without or with little vegetation, followed by agricultural territories with 417626.54 ha, in which permanent crops, pastures and heterogeneous agricultural areas are immersed. Regarding the less extensive covers, there are water surfaces with 14358.80 ha, represented by continental waters and sea waters with 1% of the area of the Mira-Mataje basin, as well as artificial territories with 7487.82 ha, in which they are immersed urbanized areas and industrial or commercial areas and communication networks and to a lesser extent in humid areas with 5763.23 ha.

For level 2 and taking into account figure 3, there are 3 more extensive covers: the first corresponds to forests (forests and semi-natural areas in level 1), with 480 522.33 ha, corresponding to 43% of the total area of Basin; the second corresponds to heterogeneous agricultural areas, with 382 510 ha and a percentage of 34.24%; finally there are the areas with herbaceous and / or shrub vegetation, with an area of 172,978.18 ha corresponding to 15% of the total area.

The smaller areas are: permanent crops, with 26,884.02 ha (2.4% of the total area of the basin); open areas without or with little vegetation, with 18296.96 ha (1.6% of the total area of the basin).

Level 3, the largest covers are dense forest and mosaic of pastures and crops. The dense forest has an area of 407 167.07 ha, corresponding to 36.45% (table 1) of the total area of the basin.

The most representative forest area has an area of 157886.10 (figure 1) and is distributed in the municipalities or cantons of Barbacoas, Tulcán, Mira and Espejo, and mostly on volcanic fans and lahars, in addition to volcanoclastic flows made up of pyroclasts. And epiclasts of andesitic composition, andesitic lavas, tuffs, volcanoclasts, alluvial fans and colluvial deposits. Another large extension of forest is found in the municipalities or cantons of Ricaurte and Barbacoas with 47,000 ha, followed by 29,167.60 ha that are located in Cumbal, Ricaurte and Mallama, in the same way an extension of forest is represented in the south of Esmeraldas, Ibarra and north of San Miguel de Urcuquí with 26,291.99 ha.

Regarding the mosaic of pastures and crops, there is evidence of an extension of 254098.22 ha corresponding to 22.74% (table 1), which are distributed in most of the Mira-Mataje basin, highlighting a large area of 96 390.02 ha, located in the municipalities or cantons of San Miguel de Urcuquí, Cotacachi, Ibarra, Antonio Ante, Otavalo, Cayambe and Pimampiro. This coverage is mostly found on pyroclasts, lahars, lava flows and andesites to rhyolites; followed by 7,046.25 ha found in the cantons of Espejo, Mira, Bolívar, Montúfar, Tulcán and San Pedro de Huaca.

Another of the coverages that stand out are the grasslands, which have 90,607.05 ha corresponding to 8.11% of the total area of the basin. Among the grasslands, the páramo grasslands stand out with 86,372.73 ha, distributed among Sapuyes, Mallama, Cumbal, Tulcán, Espejo, Montúfar, San Pedro de Huaca, Bolívar, Pimampiro, Cayambe, Ibarra, Otavalo, Cotacachi, and San Miguel de Urcuquí. In addition, another type of dense grasslands stands out with 3,537.69 ha and open paramo grasslands with 696.63 ha.

In addition to the above, it is important to highlight the scrub cover, which has 70390.59 ha and 6.30% of the total area of the basin, represented in dense scrubland of paramo with 9363.58 ha, distributed between Sapuyes, Mallama and Cumbal, as well as Emphasis is placed on another type of open shrubland with 3454.67 ha and another type of dense shrubland with 5782.74 ha.

The fragmented forest is another of the covers that are important to detail, with 64456.12 with 5.7% distributed in most of the cantons or municipalities that make up the study area, with the exception of Espejo, Bolívar, Montúfar, San Pedro de Huaca, Pimampiro, Cayambe, Cotacachi and Antonio Ante.

In the same way, there are other covers that do not have a great extension such as those mentioned above, but it is important to highlight, for example, the permanent tree crops, represented by the wax palm, which have an area of 26,560 ha, with 2.3% of the total of the basin, these crops are distributed in Esmeraldas and Tumaco, on alluvial fans, colluvial deposits, alluvial deposits, alluvial plains, sands, conglomerates and clays.

Table 1. Level 3 coverage

Source: adapted from the Magdalena-Cauca Basin Land Cover Map CORINE Land Cover Methodology adapted for Colombia at 1: 100,000 scale (IDEAM 2008). Prepared by: MMRB.

Another important chapter is the use of the soil or land, which according to the National Agricultural Survey is defined as "each of the activities carried out in the observation unit, with the intention of obtaining products and / or benefits." However, although the concepts of land use and cover are repeatedly used as equivalents, in fact they are different:

Figure 4 shows the most extensive uses in the binational basin. In this sense, Table 2 shows that the largest multipurpose land use is "timber use, recreation, protection and hunting" with 407 170.07 ha corresponding to 36.45% of the total area of the basin. This land use includes the high and low dense forest covers that are distributed in most of the basin.

Another of the relevant uses is the "permanent intensive, transitory intensive, intensive and semi-intensive grazing" with 23.26% and 259 861.45 ha, within which is the mosaic coverage of pastures and crops that are distributed mostly throughout the basin, but to a lesser extent in Barbacoas and Tulcán.

Intensive and semi-intensive grazing, fallow, fallow lands, silvopastoral, with mosaic coverage of crops, pastures and natural spaces, is also a use that should be highlighted, which has 98,631.31 ha and corresponds to 8.82%, distributed in a large extension of the basin, with the exception of Pimampiro, San Pedro de Huaca, Montúfar, Bolívar, Antonio Ante, Cayambe and Otavalo.

In addition to the previous uses, the “extensive grazing, protection, recreation” with the cover of dense páramo grassland and other types of dense grasslands stands out. This use has 90,607.06 ha and 8.11% distributed between Tumaco, Mallama, Sapuyes, Cumbal, Tulcán, Espejo, San Pedro de Huacas, Montúfar, Bolívar, Pimampiro, south of Ibarra and Otavalo, Cotacachi and San Miguel de Urcuquí.

To finalize this section of the uses, the use of wood, protection must be distinguished, where the coverage of dense páramo shrubland and another type of open shrubland is part, with an area of 70 390.59 ha and 6.3%, distributed between Tumaco, Mallama, Saupuyes, Cumbal, Mira, Ibarra, San Miguel de Urcuquí, Cotacachi, Otavalo, Antonio Ante, Pimampiro and Bolívar.

Table 2. Land use

Source: adapted from the Magdalena-Cauca Basin Land Cover Map CORINE Land Cover Methodology adapted for Colombia at a scale of 1: 100,000 (IDEAM 2008). Prepared by: MMRB.

Methodology to integrate binational information

For the integration of the information, the Corine Land Cover methodology was used, which was adapted for Colombia in 2007. It is detailed that the coverage for Ecuador was worked with information from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Aquaculture and Fisheries (MAGAP) of the year 2016, which was up to a second level, and for the coverage of Colombia the information from the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA) was used for the year 2017, with a classification up to level 5. Taking into account these characteristics, it was decided to cover the entire basin at an intermediate level, therefore, all coverage was standardized at level 3.

The challenge in this section focused on detailing the coverage at level 3 of the basin on the Ecuadorian side, so to carry out this activity and taking into account the years of each of the coverage for the 2 countries, a Landsat 8 image was downloaded. OLI of January 23, 2017. This image was used as a visual aid to add to the MAGAP classification, a level 3 column where the names of the coverages were specified. For example, to detail high dense forests, bands 5,4,3 were combined, resulting in an intense red as shown in figure 5.

Another challenge was the smoothing and reclassification of some of the coverage on the Ecuadorian side. For smoothing, the Smooth Polygon tool was used with a tolerance of 90. Regarding reclassification, we worked on the errors that were shown in some coverage, for example, places where the polygon indicated the existence of a continuous urban fabric and when verifying the information, agricultural territories were evidenced.

On the other hand, it is important to highlight that for the definition of land uses in the Mira-Mataje basin, the Legend of agricultural land uses was used at scales greater than the scale 1: 25,000 of the Rural Agricultural Planning Unit (UPRA) and the Agustín Codazzi Geographical Institute (IGAC). Where each land cover with the Corine Land Cover methodology had its respective use. In this way, a column of uses was added to the land cover shapefile.

Last update: Friday October 9, 2026 14:23:18 -05