Variation in the hydrological response within the Quebrada Seca watershed in Costa Rica resulting from an increase of urban land cover

authored by
Ricardo Bonilla Brenes, Martín Morales, Rafael Oreamuno, Jochen Hack
Abstract

Urbanization is a global phenomenon which has provoked severe disruptions in hydrological cycles, resulting in flooding problems. While detailed studies exist for the world’s temperate zones, they are few for tropical zones where most of future urbanization may occur and where flooding is already a problem. A tropical watershed in Costa Rica was used to analyze the urban development and the associated hydrological response between 1945 and 2019, based on remotely sensed data and a numerical model. Using a detailed spatial-temporal approach, we found that the watershed’s overall urbanization over the timespan (+64%-points urban-areas) had led to major hydrological challenges (+80% runoff-volume, +220% peak-flow-rate and maximum-specific-discharge, and −25 min time-to-peak). These challenges were then placed in the context of historically reported flood events, providing a basis for spatially-differentiated flood mitigation actions and for guiding future urbanization. The study also provides valuable insights for other tropical regions with the same situation.

Organisation(s)
Digital Environmental Planning
External Organisation(s)
Technische Universität Darmstadt
Universidad de Costa Rica
Type
Article
Journal
Urban water journal
Volume
20
Pages
575-591
No. of pages
17
ISSN
1573-062X
Publication date
05.2023
Publication status
Published
Peer reviewed
Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Water Science and Technology, Geography, Planning and Development
Sustainable Development Goals
SDG 11 - Sustainable Cities and Communities
Electronic version(s)
https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2023.2204877 (Access: Open)