Delimitation of Colombia hydrologic regions

Abstract

One application of regional analysis is the transfer of hydrological information

from gauged to ungauged basins. In some cases, hydrological

regionalization is a valid approach to estimate flow values in places where

information is not available, the best results being obtained when the basins

that form a hydrological region exhibit similar hydrologic behavior. In

consideration of the study of the hydroelectric potential of Colombia, the

aim of this study was to identify hydrologic regions for calculating their

annual average flow. The Colombian continental territory was divided

into 9139 basins, which were characterized with twenty hydrological,

climatic and morphometric attributes directly related to flow prediction.

Univariate statistical analysis and implementation of multivariate statistical

techniques identified sixteen hydrologic regions, in which basins

clustered around attributes such as evaporation, clustered basins, with

attributes associated to runoff and watershed descriptors associated with

relief attribute descriptors were observed. In addition to satisfy the aims

of the project, the results represent a technical basis to formulate projects

to strengthen data collection networks and to design future research to

assess the availability of surface water at regional level.