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Laguna Melincue
Topics: Lakes of Argentina
The Laguna Melincue is an endorheic lake located in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, in the General Lopez Department, next to the town of Melincue, at approximately . It covers a surface area of about 120 km, and its top water level lies at around 86 m above mean sea level (c. 2003).
The lake forms part of a wetland ecosystem, noted for its large population of waterfowl and other birds, which is protected as a nature reserve. In times of drought the lake's waters became saline.
For decades the water level of the Melincue Lake have varied considerably, often flooding parts of its basin, and over time this has seriously affected the prosperity of the nearby towns and the maintenance of roads around it. According to a study by the Faculty of Engineering of the Universidad Nacional de Rosario, in 1968 the top water level stood at 82.5 m AMSL, more than 3 m below its current height. In 19982000 the provincial government passed legislation creating a Strategic Environmental Planning Area covering the surrounding districts with the goal of promoting its sustainable development, but major concrete actions have failed to materialize.
References
Government of Santa Fe. Law 11634 Area de Planificacion Estrategica Ambiental y Reserva Natural del Humedal de la Laguna de Melincue.
El Santafesino. Aves y naturaleza protegidas.
Wetlands International. Los Humedales de America del Sur, Chapter 12, Las Pampas.
Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Faculty of Exact Sciences, Engineering and Surveying. Propuesta para la planificacion del manejo sustentable de la cuencia hidrografica y de aporte directo de la Laguna Melincue.]
Fundacion del Gran Rosario & ECOSUR. Laguna Melincue Natural Reserve
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Laguna Melincue
