Análisis de variabilidad espacial y temporal de los caudales del río Cauca - Colombia

Peláez Baldovino, Aldair Abad | 2020

Studying the spatial and temporal variations of flow rates in Colombian rivers is an important step to guarantee water availability and to carry out adequate plans to prevent possible environmental or socioeconomic impacts that such variations may generate. This research aims to analyze the trends in the series of annual maximum and minimum flows of the Cauca River. Eight (8) stations of the main section of the river selected according to their location and the time window of data available in them (1970 - 2018) were selected for this investigation. The methods used to find the trends were the non-parametric Mann-Kendall and Sen's Slope tests, from which significant trends (with a confidence level of 95%) were detected in the series of annual maximums of 6 stations and in the series of annual minimums of 2 of them. The stations Las Varas and Tres Cruces presented significant increasing trends for the series of maximums and the series of minimums, which suggests an increase in the variability of the annual data. The trend detected in the upper part of the basin was decreasing (-0.57 to -2.17 m3 / year), while the trends detected in the lower basin were increasing (0.49 to 8.93 m3 / year). be related to the anthropic interventions carried out in the basin and to the variations of macro climatic phenomena such as the ENSO and the PDO.