RESUMEN
Droughts are one of the gravest natural threats currently existing in the world and their occurrence and intensity might be exacerbated in the coming years due to climate change. The severe impacts that droughts cause to inland water resources and to the associated socio-economic activities justify the continuous monitoring of the drought. The case study presented shows a practical application of a distributed drought monitoring system implemented in a real river basin district, the Júcar River Basin District (43,000km2), where drought periods of marked intensity have occurred historically and the climate ranges from humid in the north to semiarid in the south. Five drought indices have been applied: Standardised Precipitation Index (SPI) for meteorological drought; Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) and a new soil moisture index (HI), for edaphic drought; Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) for the vegetation activity; and Spanish Status Index (SI), for the operational drought. All indices are standardised to compare them. The relationship between the standardised operational drought index SI and the long-term meteorological indices, SPI-12 or SPI-24, show that in a medium size basin the concept of "prolonged drought" required by the European Commission under the Water Framework Directive could be defined by the use of accumulated precipitation indices. The number of months to be accumulated depends on the size of the basin and the water management system properties. In large basins, such as the Júcar river basin (22,000km2), there are significant deviations due to the spatial distribution of the drought. The use of a unique aggregated indicator could hide a significant drought in a specific area, or on the other hand show a non-real drought. Evolution of drought indices for each water management system must be accompanied by spatially distributed drought maps to better understand the drought status and its evolution.
RESUMEN
This paper describes two different GIS models - one stationary (GeoImpress) and the other non-stationary (Patrical) - that assess water quantity and quality in the Júcar River Basin District, a large river basin district (43,000km(2)) located in Spain. It aims to analyze the status of surface water (SW) and groundwater (GW) bodies in relation to the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) and to support measures to achieve the WFD objectives. The non-stationary model is used for quantitative analysis of water resources, including long-term water resource assessment; estimation of available GW resources; and evaluation of climate change impact on water resources. The main results obtained are the following: recent water resources have been reduced by approximately 18% compared to the reference period 1961-1990; the GW environmental volume required to accomplish the WFD objectives is approximately 30% of the GW annual resources; and the climate change impact on water resources for the short-term (2010-2040), based on a dynamic downscaling A1B scenario, implies a reduction in water resources by approximately 19% compared to 1990-2000 and a reduction of approximately 40-50% for the long-term (2070-2100), based on dynamic downscaling A2 and B2 scenarios. The model also assesses the impact of various fertilizer application scenarios on the status of future GW quality (nitrate) and if these future statuses will meet the WFD requirements. The stationary model generates data on the actual and future chemical status of SW bodies in the river basin according to the modeled scenarios and reflects the implementation of different types of measures to accomplish the Urban Waste Water Treatment Directive and the WFD. Finally, the selection and prioritization of additional measures to accomplish the WFD are based on cost-effectiveness analysis.
RESUMEN
Cutaneous amebiasis (CA) is the manifestation in the skin and underlying soft tissues of the pathogenic properties of Entamoeba histolytica, which may be the only expression of the infection or may be associated with disease in other organs. So far, there have been only isolated case reports on this disease. We herein report the histopathologic findings on a series of seven cases, six adults and one child, of CA. The most common findings include ulcers, areas of necrosis, mixed inflammatory infiltrates, and the presence of trophozoites, the invasive form of the parasite. CA is a very rare and severe disease, it is progressive and destructive; erythrophagocytosis, a microscopic sign of pathogenicity, is always seen in CA.
