POTENTIAL INLAND AQUACULTURE SITES USING HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE IMAGES IN A REGION OF HIGH MARGINALIZATION Yolanda M, Fernandez-Ordoñez 1 . Jesus Soria-Ruiz 2 1 Colegio de Postgraduados-Campus Montecillo. Mexico. yfernand@colpos.mx 2 Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Forestales, Agrícolas y Pecuarias. Mexico. soria.jesus@inifap.gob.mx ABSTRACT Aquaculture has an important potential in the alleviation of food shortfalls and poverty in many countries. The effective practice of aquaculture is based on several requirements, among which the location of appropriate sites and information which allows merging with activities of local populations are important. This paper reports on the location of appropriate water bodies for inland aquaculture in Mexico based on high resolution satellite images processing. The approach is illustrated for the state of Guerrero. The information is presented in thematic maps of water bodies suitable for aquaculture and the methodology employed is amenable to application in other regions. Index Terms— multifunctional agriculture, aquaculture, water bodies 1. INTRODUCTION Multifunctional approaches to a widened perspective of agriculture, which in particular includes inland aquaculture, are recognized as beneficial to small-scale producers for self-consumption [1]. In public policies aligned with sustainability concerns, aquaculture is a relevant ingredient [2]. The effective practice of aquaculture is based on several requirements, among which the location of appropriate sites and merging with activities of local populations are important [3] [4]. This paper reports on a methodology to locate potentially appropriate sites for inland aquaculture in Mexico based on high resolution satellite images processing. The results are illustrated for the state of Guerrero, where mountainous regions prevail and poverty or extreme poverty are present. The methodology that has been used is amenable to application in other regions. 2. AQUACULTURE IN MEXICO Mexico has potential to rely on aquaculture as a means to assure its food security and to foster rural development by providing food directly to inhabitants of impoverished regions where agriculture is still practiced albeit at basic subsistence types including so called kitchen gardens. Aquaculture is recognized as important and government support exists for commercial aquaculture farms and fisheries. Despite financial and technical support for the development of aquaculture in marginal areas, support is scant for rural aquaculture as can be appreciated from a review of the Mexican National Aquaculture Charter [5]. Increased aid for marginal areas requires information available to decision makers about the location and characteristics of potential sites. For example aquaculture for certain fish species requires shadowed water bodies of clear water, with sandy or gravel bottoms. Such data associated to geographically located water bodies are incomplete, non-existent or not updated. 3. STUDY AREA Authors Arredondo and Lozano, as cited in [6] have pointed out that conditioned ponds - reduced size water bodies including impoundments and small dams - have not been adequately located in marginal and impoverished regions in Mexico. This is due to the difficulty of access to regions where extreme poverty is present and which are located mostly in mountain areas. Thus we selected as study area the State of Guerrero in Southern Mexico. This is one of the most impoverished states in the country. Its extreme geographic coordinates are Lat 18° 59' 3.58'' N, Long: 102° 20' 4.22'' W; Lat 16° 10' 42.33'' N, Long 97° 43' 45.85'' W. In many remote and poor areas subsistence agriculture exists, thus rural aquaculture is feasible in principle, albeit for auto consumption. The information about agriculture in remote areas is gathered by government agencies mostly by traditional surveying -using questionnaires and other ground based techniques- although use of optical and radar remote sensing techniques are sure to become more frequent. [7] Information about water bodies exists at different spatial levels for the country, but is scarce for deprived or remote regions [8]. Such is the case of the selected study area (Figure 1). Partial data from the National Aquaculture Charter as shown in Table 1 for three states and for comparison purposes only, concerns one fish species 3830 978-1-5090-3332-4/16/$31.00 ©2016 IEEE IGARSS 2016