Manejo integrado de cuencas hídricas: cuenca del río Gualjaina, Chubut, Argentina*

Gualjaina river, an affluent of the Chubut River, located in the Patagonia Argentina, develops a drainage basin of about 2800 km2. The knowledge of the physical and anthropogenic variables of a river basin, plus the applicable legal framework, aloud the integrated watershed management with the objective of preserve and enforce the environmental sustainability. The researches of the Argentinean drainage basin are scarce and for that, this paper fosters to analyze the legal framework applied to the management of drainage basins focused on the Gualjaina river. Therefore, from the institutional as from the legal aspects, the management of watershed in Chubut province tends to the integrality, through the coordination of the institutions as the “Instituto Provincial del Agua” beside the participation of local people represented through consortiums (“Consorcios”), the educative community and the information media.