Water scarcity poses a major threat to food security and human health in Central America and is i... more Water scarcity poses a major threat to food security and human health in Central America and is increasingly recognized as a pressing regional issues caused primarily by deforestation and population pressure. Tools that can reliably simulate the major components of the water balance with the limited data available and needed to drive management decision and protect water supplies in this region. Four adjacent forested headwater catchments in La Tigra National Park, Honduras, ranging in size from 70 to 635 ha were instrumented and discharge measured over a one year period. A semi-distributed water balance model was developed to characterize the bio-hydrology of the four catchments, one of which is primarily cloud forest cover. The water balance model simulated daily stream discharges well, with Nash Sutcliffe model efficiency (E) values ranging from 0.67 to 0.90. Analysis of calibrated model parameters showed that despite all watersheds having similar geologic substrata, the bio-hydr...
Understanding the basic relationships between rainfall and runoff is vital for effective manageme... more Understanding the basic relationships between rainfall and runoff is vital for effective management and utilization of scarce water resources in Central America with widespread potable water shortage during the dry months of the monsoon. Potential good water sources for the dry season are the forested lands and especially cloud forests, but little information concerning its potential is available to water supply engineers. Our objective is to define rainfall-runoff-baseflow relationships for forested watershed. Flumes were installed for measuring river discharge in four subwatersheds in La Tigra National Park, Central, Honduras. This included a 636 ha subwatershed with more than 60% cloud forest coverage. Precipitation averaged 1130 mm/year. About half of the total rainfall became runoff for the cloud forest watershed while the discharge was less that 20% of the precipitation in the adjacent undisturbed forested watershed. Infiltration rates were generally greater than rainfall rate...
El agua es el bien y servicio ecosistémico más valorado por las poblaciones rurales y urbanas. Da... more El agua es el bien y servicio ecosistémico más valorado por las poblaciones rurales y urbanas. Dada su importancia en la vida cotidiana del ser humano, el agua y las cuencas presentan oportunidades únicas para promover un modelo de manejo integrador, incluyendo lo ambiental, socioeconómico e institucional. Es en la cuenca donde el interés individual de usufructuar la tierra para beneficio y ganancia personal y familiar, tiene que sopesarse con el interés público de obtener agua de calidad, en cantidad apropiada y con regularidad. Hay zonas en las cuencas en donde la protección y conservación del bosque es imprescindible para la producción y provisión sostenida de agua. En los últimos 18 años, el programa de manejo de cuencas de Zamorano, con apoyo financiero de varios entes nacionales e internacionales, ha contribuido a la protección de los recursos naturales en importantes cuencas de la región. El programa ha también beneficiado miles de familias mediante la reconstrucción y constr...
Water scarcity poses a major threat to food security and human health in Central America and is i... more Water scarcity poses a major threat to food security and human health in Central America and is increasingly recognized as a pressing regional issues caused primarily by deforestation and population pressure. Tools that can reliably simulate the major components of the water balance with the limited data available and needed to drive management decision and protect water supplies in this region. Four adjacent forested headwater catchments in La Tigra National Park, Honduras, ranging in size from 70 to 635 ha were instrumented and discharge measured over a one year period. A semi-distributed water balance model was developed to characterize the bio-hydrology of the four catchments, one of which is primarily cloud forest cover. The water balance model simulated daily stream discharges well, with Nash Sutcliffe model efficiency (E) values ranging from 0.67 to 0.90. Analysis of calibrated model parameters showed that despite all watersheds having similar geologic substrata, the bio-hydr...
Understanding the basic relationships between rainfall and runoff is vital for effective manageme... more Understanding the basic relationships between rainfall and runoff is vital for effective management and utilization of scarce water resources in Central America with widespread potable water shortage during the dry months of the monsoon. Potential good water sources for the dry season are the forested lands and especially cloud forests, but little information concerning its potential is available to water supply engineers. Our objective is to define rainfall-runoff-baseflow relationships for forested watershed. Flumes were installed for measuring river discharge in four subwatersheds in La Tigra National Park, Central, Honduras. This included a 636 ha subwatershed with more than 60% cloud forest coverage. Precipitation averaged 1130 mm/year. About half of the total rainfall became runoff for the cloud forest watershed while the discharge was less that 20% of the precipitation in the adjacent undisturbed forested watershed. Infiltration rates were generally greater than rainfall rate...
El agua es el bien y servicio ecosistémico más valorado por las poblaciones rurales y urbanas. Da... more El agua es el bien y servicio ecosistémico más valorado por las poblaciones rurales y urbanas. Dada su importancia en la vida cotidiana del ser humano, el agua y las cuencas presentan oportunidades únicas para promover un modelo de manejo integrador, incluyendo lo ambiental, socioeconómico e institucional. Es en la cuenca donde el interés individual de usufructuar la tierra para beneficio y ganancia personal y familiar, tiene que sopesarse con el interés público de obtener agua de calidad, en cantidad apropiada y con regularidad. Hay zonas en las cuencas en donde la protección y conservación del bosque es imprescindible para la producción y provisión sostenida de agua. En los últimos 18 años, el programa de manejo de cuencas de Zamorano, con apoyo financiero de varios entes nacionales e internacionales, ha contribuido a la protección de los recursos naturales en importantes cuencas de la región. El programa ha también beneficiado miles de familias mediante la reconstrucción y constr...
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