Artículo publicado en: Revista “Agua y más“, n° 2, 34-37, jun. 2015

In the Amazon floodplains, hydrological variability plays a crucial role by shaping the habitat, offering shelter and feeding or breeding areas. During the dry season, some fresh water turtles such as the yellow-spotted turtle (Podocnemis unifilis Troschel, 1848) use the sand banks at point bar areas as breeding sites, which must be available in time for the start of oviposition. In this study, we used altimetry-derived water level data from radar satellites combined with in-situ hydrological measurements to evaluate water level variations and relate them to oviposition starting dates (2003-2012) from Pacaya-Samiria National Reserve, Peru. Synchronous hydrological behavior was found between the major river stems (Ucayali and Marañon) and the inner rivers (Pacaya and Samiria), thus enabling the utilization of water level in the main river stem to correlate with oviposition in the inner r...

Quantification of the surface water offer is crucial for its management. In Peru, the low spatial density of hydrometric stations makes this task challenging. This work aims to evaluate the hydrological performance of a monthly water balance model in Peru using precipitation and evapotranspiration data from the high-resolution meteorological PISCO dataset, which has been developed by the National Service of Meteorology and Hydrology of Peru (SENAMHI). A regional-ization approach based on Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Testing (FAST) of the rainfall-runoff (RR) and runoff variability (RV) indices defined 14 calibration regions nationwide. Next, the GR2M model was used at a semi-distributed scale in 3594 sub-basins and river streams to simulate monthly discharges from January 1981 to March 2020. Model performance was evaluated using the Kling–Gupta efficiency (KGE), square root transferre...

Anomalous conditions in the oceans and atmosphere have the potential to beused to enhance the predictability of flood events, enabling earlier warnings toreduce risk. In the Amazon basin, extreme flooding is consistently attributedto warmer or cooler conditions in the tropical Pacific and Atlantic oceans, withsome evidence linking floods to other hydroclimatic drivers such as theMadden–Julian Oscillation (MJO). This review evaluates the impact of severalhydroclimatic drivers on rainfall and river discharge regimes independently,aggregating all the information of previous studies to provide an up-to-datedepiction of what we currently know and do not know about how variationsin climate impact flooding in the Amazon. Additionally, 34 major flood eventsthat have occurred since 1950 in the Amazon and their attribution to climateanomalies are documented and evaluated. This review finds that ...

A novel approach for estimating precipitation patterns is developed here and applied to generate a new hydrologically corrected daily precipitation dataset, called RAIN4PE (Rain for Peru and Ecuador), at 0.18 spatial resolution for the period 1981–2015 covering Peru and Ecuador. It is based on the application of 1) the random forest method to merge multisource precipitation estimates (gauge, satellite, and reanalysis) with terrain elevation, and 2) observed and modeled streamflow data to first detect biases and second further adjust gridded precipitation by inversely applying the simulated results of the ecohydrological model SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool). Hydrological results using RAIN4PE as input for the Peruvian and Ecuadorian catchments were compared against the ones when feeding other uncorrected (CHIRP and ERA5) and gaugecorrected (CHIRPS, MSWEP, and PISCO) precipitation...

Se estima que para el año 2080 la temperatura en la región amazónica aumentará en 4°C, lo que tendrá implicancias directas en el equilibrio de sus ecosistemas. Teniendo en cuenta que el 50 por ciento de las precipitaciones en la Amazonía son producidas por convección, es decir, son provocadas por las transferencias de aire caliente y frío en la región, siendo en gran medida efecto de la autorregulación de una región dominada por extensas zonas de bosque húmedo, el problema del cambio climático, unido a los procesos progresivos de deforestación, se convierte en uno de los problemas más preocupantes para la región y el mundo. Sin duda alguna, esta capacidad de autorregulación ya se está viendo afectada. Hay que tener en cuenta que un 40 o 45 por ciento de deforestación en la Amazonía provocaría un desastre irreparable de implicancias mundiales. La presente publicació...

El macizo kárstico del Alto Mayo (San Martin, Perú) tiene una red de drenaje desarrollada, activa y poco estudiada. El propósito de este estudio es determinar los caudales de las resurgencias y sus cuencas hidrográficas correspondientes. Los datos hidrológicos y pluviométricos utilizados provienen de los observatorios locales (ANA y SENAMHI) y del proyecto KarstAm. Los caudales medidos alcanzan hasta 24 m3/s en promedio para algunas resurgencias, situándolas entre las más grandes de Sur América. La poca variabilidad temporal del caudal de uno de los acuíferos (Río Negro) muestra un comportamiento atípico en relación a los acuíferos kársticos, pareciéndose más a un acuífero poroso. Los caudales específicos de las cuencas topográficas son superiores a la tendencia regional, por lo que las cuencas hidrográficas han sido recalculadas suponiendo la presencia de captación...