Les sédiments du bassin versant de l'Usumacinta

Spanning the Mexican states of Tabasco, Chiapas, and Campeche, and partly transboundary with Guatemala, the Usumacinta is the river with the highest discharge in Mexico and Central America. As the cradle of Maya civilisation, it is a strategically important area for biodiversity and freshwater supply. While water is the river's primary and most obvious resource, another is just as essential: sediments. An essential component of aquatic ecosystems, they circulate freely from upstream to downstream and have been extracted and used for centuries. Today, they face human-induced pressures, particularly pollution and extraction. Although they have received little attention to date across scientific disciplines, they nevertheless serve fundamental ecological and social functions and constitute both the river’s invisible wealth and its living memory. This collective volume is the result of groundbreaking interdisciplinary research conducted over four years by French and Mexican researchers, as well as fieldwork carried out in collaboration with local residents. From academics to local stakeholders, everyone will find valuable insights here into the sustainable management of fluvial hydrosystems.