Desarrollo de un modelo coneptual de lluvía-escorrentía para interpretación de procesos hidrológicos en la Cuenca altoandina del rio Zhurucay

Abstract

The importance of construe the process of the high-Andean ecosystems assure the decision making in every aspect related to the development and conservation of them. The present study focusses in the development and evaluation of five conceptual models about the rainfall-runoff process in a high-Andean micro-catchment of wetlands, located in the south of Ecuador. The soil hydrology is mimicked by a maximal of three reservoirs arranged in series or/and parallel, for the evaluation of the performance the GLUE uncertainty analysis is used. The results of the discharge simulation supports the relevance of the conceptual models based on the soils hydrology to represent the ecosystem on the calibration and validation periods. The model based on two parallel reservoirs simulates on a good way the rainfall-runoff, even so the models with three reservoirs in series have the same results and provides a best identification of the processes. The rainfall-runoff is highly controlled by the precipitation and the soils properties, the contribution of the soil horizons for rainfall-runoff is controlled by the soil moisture antecedent. The results confirm that the river flow is controlled primarily by subsurface lateral flow through the organic horizons in wet and dry conditions, while the mineral horizon and the top of the fractured rock does not contribute significantly to the discharge, being necessary to use a reservoir of slow dynamics in all conceptualizations. Surface flow generation is negligible and occurs during certain maximum precipitation events.