The hydrography of Mexico it is conditioned by its geographical location, its climate and its relief. Being located between the United States and Central America, it enjoys temperate to tropical climates, with high rainfall in the south.
Its relief is defined by mountain ranges and plateaus limited by two oceans, and gives rise to a complex hydrography. In such a way that three slopes develop in its territory, with waters draining towards the Atlantic Ocean and towards the Pacific Ocean. Likewise, it has several endorheic (closed) basins, with waters draining into lakes and lagoons in the central plateau..
In addition, for Mexico the knowledge and proper management of its hydrography is of vital importance, as it is a country with large arid areas. As well as areas of high population density with strong demand for water, as is the case of the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City.
In Mexico there are 3 watersheds, the one that drains into the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, the Pacific Ocean and the interior watershed. The latter is made up of several endorheic basins, that is, they do not drain into any sea or ocean, but into the pockets of the Altiplano..
In total there are around 1,471 river basins, more than 50% of which are smaller than 50 kmtwo, only 16 exceed 20,000 kmtwo.
The largest of the latter are the Rio Grande, Balsas and Nazas basins. On the other hand, in the Mexican territory there are 8 transboundary basins, 3 of which are shared with the United States. These are the aforementioned Rio Grande, Rio Colorado and Tijuana..
While on its southern border it shares 4 with Guatemala, that of the Grijalva-Usumacinta system, that of Suchiate, Coatán and Candelaria. In addition to the Hondo river basin shared with Belize and Guatemala.
On the slope of the Atlantic Ocean, the main river is the Usumacinta, the largest in Mexico, whose source is in Guatemala where it is called Salinas. Then there are the Grijalva river, the Papaloapan, the Coatzacoalcos, the Pánuco, the Tonalá, the Tecolutla and the Rio Grande. While on the slope of the Pacific Ocean are the rivers Balsas, Santiago, Verde, Ometepec and El Fuerte.
For its part, on the inland slope is the Lerma River, which flows into Lake Chapala. As well as the Nazas River, formed by the Ramos and Oro rivers, which flows into the Mayrán lagoon. Finally, the Aguanaval river that discharges into the Viesca lagoon in the Lagunera region.
Here is a list of the longest rivers in Mexico:
In Mexico there are numerous waterfalls and waterfalls, the highest waterfall being Piedra Volada or Huajumar, in Chihuahua, at 453 meters. However, it is a seasonal waterfall, that is, it only forms in the rainy season..
While the Tulimán Waterfall, 350 meters high, in the Sierra Norte de Puebla, is permanent. In addition, in the state of Chihuahua there is also the Basaseachi Waterfall, a 246 m high waterfall.
While in Chiapas there is the Chiflón Waterfall of 120 meters high, and in San Luís de Potosí, the Tamul Waterfall with 105 meters. Finally, it was not until 2006 that a 180-meter high waterfall was discovered in Nueva León, which was called La Escondida Waterfall..
38.7% of the water used in Mexico comes from aquifers (groundwater), controlled by the National Water Commission, which has divided the national territory into 653 aquifers, of which only 157 have usable water reserves.
These include Valle de Calvillo, Aguascalientes state, and Tijuana, El Descanso, Los Médanos and San Vicente in Baja California. One of the most important and over-exploited aquifers in Mexico is the Mexico City Metropolitan Area Aquifer..
This is due to the high population density that is located there, which is around 66.71 inhabitants / kmtwo. In Mexico there are about 101 overexploited aquifers and 17 have salinity problems.
On the other hand, the greatest availability of groundwater is found in the southeast of the country, in Chiapas and the Yucatan peninsula..
In Mexico there are 6,331 cataloged wetlands, of which 142 are included in the Ramsar Convention for the protection of the world's wetlands. These include swamps, estuaries, marshes, bogs, estuaries, mangroves, and floodplains..
Of the total wetlands in Mexico, there are 464 transboundary, 430 of them on the border with the United States and 34 on the southern border, with Belize and Guatemala. One of the most important wetlands is the Cuatrociénagas Valley, in the Coahuila desert..
This wetland consists of a series of lagoons that emerge from underground water in the middle of the desert. Another type of characteristic wetlands of Mexico are cenotes, also associated with groundwater.
There are different criteria to differentiate lakes and lagoons, but the main one is depth, although the limit varies from country to country. According to some parameters, in Mexico there would only be two lakes, the rest being lagoons.
In Mexico the United States criterion is used, which establishes the depth limit greater than 3 meters to be a lake. Therefore, the largest lake in Mexico is Chapala with 1,116 kmtwo and between 4 and 6 m of average depth (according to some 10 m).
Then there are Lake Cuitzeo with an average depth of 7 meters, and Lake Pátzcuaro with an average depth of 5 meters (maximum 11 meters). While the largest lagoon is Laguna Madre in Tamaulipas, with 1,017 mtwo and an average depth of only 1 meter.
In the case of the Catemaco lagoon, in Veracruz, although it is called a lagoon, its depth classifies it as a lake. This is because it has an average depth of 7.6 m and a maximum of 22 meters. On the other hand, it is the third largest body of water in Mexico with 72.54 km².
In Mexico there are about 4,000 reservoirs distributed throughout the national territory, of which about 667 qualify as large. The largest of the reservoirs is the one corresponding to the La Angostura Dam or Dr. Belisario Domínguez. This was built in 1974 on the Grijalva river, in Chiapas, and stores 12,762 million m3.
Then follow the reservoirs of the Infiernillo dams on the Balsas river with 12,500 million m3 and Netzahualcóyotl of the Grijalva river, with 10,596 million m3. Also noteworthy are several dams with reservoirs with capacities between 4,000 and 8,000 million m3, such as the Presidente Miguel Alemán Dam, the Solidaridad Dam and the La Amistad International Dam.
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