Objective:

Identify how the Socio-Ecological System (SES) of the Sonora River sub-basin responds to different territorial expressions that mark each of the exploitation regimes based on three perspectives: ecological scale, scope of conservation policies and social context.

Methodology:

Description of the context; identification of territorial dynamics through a Geographic Information System in a period of 40 years through the geometric superimposition of vector information technique.

Results:

Territorial interrelation between different production links of SSE, hydrological alteration, successive increase of land uses and vegetation changes; there is a limited scope of ecological regulation policies; as well as decreasing demographic trend in rural areas and significant levels of marginalization.

Limitations:

The margin of error of the official cartographic inputs is assumed.

Conclusions:

The different disturbances due to land use, the limited ecological regulation and the demographic context of SES generate a cyclical and reduced resilience, where adaptive changes have resulted in a prolongation of the same in / sustainability of the sub-basin through time.