Section 4: Methodological design

Topic: Research and development

Title: hydraulic fracturing and aquifer management, the fracking situation.

Paradigm Positivism: The exploitation of non-renewable natural resources is an issue that

brings together different actors who, in the context of mediating their interests and points of
defense, establish positions that are among the positive aspects in terms of optimizing the
exploitation of resources, and negative in terms of environmental impact. The country has
taken actions in order to increase the exploitation and extraction of mining and hydrocarbons
such as oil or gas, both conventional and non-conventional, since the mining and energy sector
contributes an average of 9 points to the Colombian gross domestic product GDP and has a
participation of about 50% in the country's export income and more than 20% of foreign direct
investment. Colombia is not an oil or mining country, but it does have a high dependence on
the income generated by this sector.

Post-positivism: The judicious exercise of evaluating economic variables (international prices,

opportunity cost, export costs), environmental variables (biodiversity, negative environmental
impact, environmental services of ecosystems) and social variables (social gap, employment,
welfare and health) should prevail, in order to make decisions guided by analysis and reason.

Critical theory: Reality is a product of the influence of a set of factors related to the social,
political, cultural, economic, ethnic, among others. It is known by all of us that the exploitation
of non-renewable resources, brings with it the generation of economic surpluses, but it is not
usually reflected in tangible social and environmental welfare; on the contrary, it generates
multiple alerts of social, environmental, cultural and even economic deterioration.

Constructivism: Here we are based on history and culture; it is taken into account that
currently many countries have banned the use of the technique of fracking due to
environmental and cultural damage that this causes, among these damages are: contamination
of underground and surface aquifers, damage to the outer layers of the earth, high rates of
water use, gases expelled into the atmosphere, among others. For these reasons, many
nations do not agree with this technique of extracting non-conventional hydrocarbons, due to
the high risk that its application represents for the general population. Among these countries
that do not support the technique of hydraulic fractures are France, Bulgaria, Germany, United
Kingdom, South Africa, Czech Republic, Spain, Switzerland, Austria, Northern Ireland, Italy and
Republic of Ireland.

Participative: Article 79 of the Colombian Constitution says, "Everyone has the right to enjoy a
healthy environment. The law shall guarantee the participation of the community in decisions
that may affect it. It is the duty of the State to protect the diversity and integrity of the
environment, to conserve the areas of special ecological importance and to promote education
for the achievement of these ends''.

But... contrary to the energy transition that the rest of the world is betting on, because of the
environmental and social risks that science has been demonstrating due to the dependence on
oil, President Ivan Duque, through the Ministry of Mines and Energy, issued last July 7
Resolution 40185 through which the technical criteria for the development of the Pilot Projects
for fracking in Colombia were established. Although academics and congressmen state that
these pilot projects are far from having scientific and research purposes.

Interpretative: With respect to interpretation, I think it is pertinent to seek to expand

knowledge since politicians want to demonstrate that fracking in Colombia can be done safely,
but ignore the growing scientific evidence on the socio-ecological impacts of fracking
demonstrated in other countries.

Focus mixed: The quantitative approach comes in the context of the national government's
quest to increase oil and gas reserves to improve the prospects of energy self-sufficiency and
tax revenues. Minhacienda says in the 2019 Fiscal Framework that this technique would give
the country an additional $14 billion per year. Fracking would give Colombia oil reserves of 7.5
billion barrels, that is to say 24 additional years.

In the cualitative focus are seismicity, contamination by fluid migration, activation of geological
faults, cultural modifications, landscape effects, change in land use, decrease in the quality of
ecosystems, effects on archaeological patrimony, increase in the cost of living, detrimenting
people's health, affecting access to public services, affecting the level of employment.

Study Type: Descriptive in way of showing the effects of hydraulic fracturing in other countries
that have more research and development in this area.

Data collection Methods: Bibliographic databases.

Data Analysis: scientific method, that is: observe, ask questions, generate hypotheses,
experiment, conclude and report results.

Participants: The director of this researching is me Alejandro Montoya Gutierrez, I am

environmental engineering student. The support group are people from the scientific and
research field in the environmental, mining and social spheres.

Stages Semester
4 6 7 8 9 10
Be part of a research group at the
university
Produce a research project/proposal
Send it to COLCIENCIAS
Receive COLCIENCIAS acceptance,
corrections or rejection
Make corrections and resend it to
COLCIENCIAS
Provided the money for the research
Undertake the research in the field
BASED ON PRIMARY SOURCES
Report research results to the research
group, to the university and to
COLCIENCIAS
Publish the research