Modelamiento hidrológico de las microcuencas Olarte y Tobal pertencientes a la cuenca del lago de Tota.

Abstract

The water resources are a very important part in the development of the human kind because its use generates a well-being and a life quality. Colombia has the second largest natural lake in Latin America, which is the Tota Lake. This lake is the source of water for the municipalities around the watershed and it is used in household, commercial, agricultural, piscicultural, and industrial activities, and therefore, it is a benefit for the population in the area. The study of the water supply of the Tota Lake watershed is of importance to the inhabitants that use this resource. However, there are studies about this watershed whose data is old. Therefore, the current state and the availability of the water is still unknown. This research work had as a goal, the morphometric characterization, the water balance, the average flows and the identification of the possible points of flooding, taking as study area the micro-watersheds Olarte and Tobal, which are the largest water contributors of the whole watershed. The hydrological study starts with the morphometric analysis of the micro-watersheds Olarte and Tobal, including the delimitation of the watershed, the measurement of the area and the length, compactness index, form factor and the characterization of the drainage. For the water balance of the watershed, the Thomas a, b, c, d method was used with the parameters of areal precipitation and evapotranspiration, which were taken from the database of the Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (IDEAM, Spanish abbreviation). With this methodology the behaviour of the water movements was studied. Besides, the average flows were estimated using the ArcGis program with its extension Hec-Hms. These results were relevant for the last phase of the research, which consisted of the identification of the possible flooding points. In this last phase, the dynamic modelling was used with the Iber program, which allowed to obtain the possible flooding points.