Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications
Title
Lake Atitlan: A Review of the Food, Energy, and Water Sustainability of a Mountain Lake in Guatemala
Campus Units
Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering
Document Type
Article
Publication Version
Published Version
Publication Date
1-7-2021
Journal or Book Title
Sustainability
Volume
13
Issue
2
First Page
515
Research Focus Area(s)
Land and Water Resources Engineering
DOI
10.3390/su13020515
Abstract
This paper summarizes the findings of an extensive review of literature that was conducted to understand the historical state of the food, energy, and water nexus in the Lake Atitlan basin and to recommend incentive-based, long-term sustainable policies to become a significant driver to Guatemala’s tourism industry and GDP growth. The SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) was implemented in the basin to work towards the goal of simulating nutrient loading. A key conclusion of this review study is for the local population to have advocacy for the “zero wastewater discharge to Lake Atitlan” initiative to bring long-term benefits to lake water quality. One of the recommended policy decisions is to seek external financing from international agencies like the World Bank at low-cost interest (IDA Loans) to implement waste management systems and pay this external debt by putting a small but affordable tax on tourists visiting the lake. Once a culture of zero municipal effluent discharge to Lake Atitlan is adopted by the local population, the livelihood of residents will become sustainable and the standard of living will increase because of improved water and air quality, making Lake Atitlan a haven of tourism for Guatemala and lifting its economy.
Access
Open
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Copyright Owner
The Author(s)
Copyright Date
2021
Language
en
File Format
application/pdf
Recommended Citation
Neher, Timothy P.; Soupir, Michelle L.; and Kanwar, Rameshwar S., "Lake Atitlan: A Review of the Food, Energy, and Water Sustainability of a Mountain Lake in Guatemala" (2021). Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering Publications. 1173.
https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/abe_eng_pubs/1173
Included in
Environmental Engineering Commons, Food Security Commons, Tourism Commons, Water Resource Management Commons
Comments
This article is published as Neher, Timothy P., Michelle L. Soupir, and Rameshwar S. Kanwar. "Lake Atitlan: A Review of the Food, Energy, and Water Sustainability of a Mountain Lake in Guatemala." Sustainability 13, no. 2 (2021): 515. DOI: 10.3390/su13020515. Posted with permission.