Surface Water Resources

Abstract

This chapter presents three main topics: river basins and streamflows, lakes and reservoirs, and wetlands. Because they vary significantly, surface water resources and the corresponding river basins are grouped in 4 zones: arid and semi-arid zone, central zone, southern zone and Patagonia. River flows in each zone are not homogeneous and vary gradually, as differences in climate, vegetation, topography and other factors that influence flow are present. To give a quantitative picture of surface runoff, a total of 86 gaging stations distributed across these zones have been selected. Flow data have been collected from the National Bank of water resources information. To present an overall idea of surface water resources using a relatively small number of data tables, an approach based on annual flow volumes and monthly percentage distribution of this annual volume was used. On the other hand, lakes and reservoirs and wetlands are presented in a single section since most natural lakes are in the southern regions of the country and wetlands are located in all latitudes.