Browsing by Author "Willems, Patrick"

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Characterizatión of main external climate influences in rainfall and air temperature in the Paute River Basin - Southern Andes of Ecuador
(Universidad de Cuenca, 2011-07) Mora, D. E.; Willems, Patrick; DIUC; Universidad de Cuenca; Dirección de Investigación de la Universidad de Cuenca
Characterization of climate variability in the Andes mountain range needs special assessment as rainfall and temperature are extremely variable in space and time. This paper examines the anomalies of observed month rainfall and temperature data of respectively 25 and 16 stations, from the early 1960‟s to the 1990‟s and compare them against anomalies from different external climate influences in annual and 3-month seasonal block periods. The stations are located in the Río Paute Basin in the Ecuador‟s southern Andes. All stations are within the elevation band 1800 and 4200 m a.s.l. and affected by the Tropical Pacific, Amazon and Tropical Atlantic climate. The results show similar temperature variations for the entire region, which are highly influenced by the ENSO, especially during the DJF season. During JJA, the correlation is weaker showing the influence of other climate factors. Higher temperature anomalies are found at the high elevation sites while in deep valleys the anomalies are less significant. Rainfall variations depend, in addition to elevation, on additional factors such as the aspect orientation, slope and hydrological regime. Highest and most significant rainfall anomalies are found in the eastern sites.
Climate changes of hydrometeorological and hydrological extremes in the Paute basin, Ecuadorean Andes
(2014) Mora Serrano, Diego Esteban; Campozano Parra, Lenin Vladimir; Cisneros Espinoza, Felipe Eduardo; Wyseure, Guido; Willems, Patrick
Investigation was made on the climate change signal for hydrometeorological and hydrological variables along the Paute River basin, in the southern Ecuador Andes. An adjusted quantile perturbation approach was used for climate downscaling, and the impact of climate change on runoff was studied for two nested catchments within the basin. The analysis was done making use of long daily series of seven representative rainfall and temperature sites along the study area and considering climate change signals of global and regional climate models for IPCC SRES scenarios A1B, A2 and B1. The determination of runoff was carried out using a lumped conceptual rainfall–runoff model. The study found that the range of changes in temperature is homogeneous for almost the entire region with an average annual increase of approximately +2.0 °C. However, the warmest periods of the year show lower changes than the colder periods. For rainfall, downscaled results project increases in the mean annual rainfall depth and the extreme daily rainfall intensities along the basin for all sites and all scenarios. Higher changes in extreme rainfall intensities are for the wetter region. These lead to changes in catchment runoff flows, with increasing high peak flows and decreasing low peak flows. The changes in high peak flows are related to the changes in rainfall extremes, whereas the decreases in the low peak flows are due to the increase in temperature and potential evapotranspiration together with the reduction in the number of wet days.
Comparative analysis of 1-D river flow models applied in a quasi 2-D approach for floodplain inundation prediction
(Universidad de Cuenca, 2013-06) Villazón, Mauricio F.; Timbe, Luis M.; Willems, Patrick; Universidad de Cuenca; Dirección de Investigación de la Universidad de Cuenca; DIUC
A comparative analysis was performed of three 1-D river hydrodynamic models (Mike 11, InfoWorks-RS and HEC-RAS) in a quasi 2-D setting. The study area was schematized either as a network of fictitious river branches or as storage areas. The models were run on a reduced area of the Dender River basin in Belgium, respectively for three historical flood events and eight synthetic events with a return period between 1 and 1000 years. The performance of the models were tested comparing simulated discharge, water level, inundation volume and inundated area. Results show that the three models and the two approaches used for the presentation of the floodplain lead to very similar results with a root mean square error of around 6 cm for the peak river levels and 2% for the river discharges. Despite the high accuracy of the water levels in the main river, inundation levels inside the floodplains have root mean square errors of around 25 cm during flood conditions.
Decadal oscillations in rainfall and air temperature in the Paute river basin-southern andes of Ecuador
(2012-04) Mora, Diego; Willems, Patrick
In the Andes environment, rainfall and temperature can be extremely variable in space and time. The determination of climate variability and climate change needs a special assessment for water management. This paper examines the anomalies of observed monthly rainfall and temperature data from 25 to 16 stations, respectively, from the early 1960s to the 1990s. The stations are located in the Rio Paute Basin in the Ecuador’s Southern Andes. All stations are within the elevation band 1,800 and 4,200 m a.s.l. and affected by the Tropical Pacific, Amazon, and Tropical Atlantic climate. Anomalies in quantiles were determined for each station and their significance tested. In addition, their correlations with different external climatic influences were studied for anomalies in annual and 3-month seasonal block periods. The results show similar temperature variations for the entire region, which are highly influenced by the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, especially during the December–February season. During June–August, the correlation is weaker showing the influence of other climate factors. Higher temperature anomalies are found at the high elevation sites while at deep valley sites the anomalies are less significant. Rainfall variations depend, in addition to elevation, on additional factors such as the aspect orientation, slope, and hydrological regime. The highest and most significant rainfall anomalies are found in the eastern sites.
Desempeño de modelos hidráulicos 1D y 2D para la simulación de inundaciones Lus Timbe
(Universidad de Cuenca, 2011-07) Timbe Castro, Luis Manuel; Willems, Patrick; DIUC; Universidad de Cuenca; Dirección de Investigación de la Universidad de Cuenca
Nowadays, the availability of high resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) to represent the earth surface allows coupling of hydraulic models with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to obtain the flood extent and water levels in floodplains. Many studies on flood mapping have been conducted using one or two dimensional (1D/2D) hydrodynamic models. Some authors affirm that 2D hydraulic models are the state of the art for river flood modeling. They have, however, the disadvantage that their application is constrained by the high requirements for data, hardware and software. 1D models are capable of modeling precisely the flow in main rivers, but are less accurate for modeling over bank flow. The aim of the investigation is to test the accuracy for river floodplain modeling comparing a quasi-2D approach using a 1D model with a full 2D approach. The models were tested for the river Dender in Belgium for three historical flood events.
Evaluation of a data-based hydrological model for simulating the runoff of medium sized Andean basins
(Universidad de Cuenca, 2010-12) Célleri Alvear, Rolando Enrique; Willems, Patrick; Feyen, Jan; Universidad de Cuenca; Dirección de Investigación de la Universidad de Cuenca; DIUC
Using timeseries of rainfall and streamflow of two basins in the Andean mountain range, South Ecuador, different in size (300 and 1260 Km2), a generalized lumped conceptual model (VHM), offering the possibility of using different levels of complexity with number of model parameters varying between 5 and 15, was tested. To increase the information timeseries of total streamflow were split in timeseries of quick, intermittent and baseflow, and the timeseries were discretized to select independent events of high and low flows. The paper outlines in detailed the procedure for the model structure identification, calibration and validation, as well as the multi-objective criteria approach used to evaluate the performance of the model and its components. It has been shown that the model structure, consisting of a module for soil storage and quick flow, was able to model for both basins the water balance and streamflow components with acceptable accuracy. A low value of the soil water storage facilitates the model calibration but it is not a guarantee that the model performs better. The study further reveals that the risk of over-parameterization
Evaluation of TRMM 3B42 precipitation estimates and WRF retrospective precipitation simulation over the Pacific–Andean region of Ecuador and Peru
(2014) Ochoa, A.; Pineda, L.; Crespo, P.; Willems, Patrick
The Pacific–Andean region in western South America suffers from rainfall data scarcity, as is the case for many regions in the South. An important research question is whether the latest satellite-based and numerical weather prediction (NWP) model outputs capture well the temporal and spatial patterns of rainfall over the region, and hence have the potential to compensate for the data scarcity. Based on an interpolated gauge-based rainfall data set, the performance of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B42 V7 and its predecessor V6, and the North Western South America Retrospective Simulation (OA-NOSA30) are evaluated over 21 sub-catchments in the Pacific–Andean region of Ecuador and Peru (PAEP). In general, precipitation estimates from TRMM and OANOSA30 capture the seasonal features of precipitation in the study area. Quantitatively, only the southern sub-catchments of Ecuador and northern Peru (3.6–6◦ S) are relatively well estimated by both products. The accuracy is considerably less in the northern and central basins of Ecuador (0–3.6◦ S). It is shown that the probability of detection (POD) is better for light precipitation (POD decreases from 0.6 for rates less than 5 mm day−1 to 0.2 for rates higher than 20 mm day−1 ). Compared to its predecessor, 3B42 V7 shows modest regionwide improvements in reducing biases. The improvement is specific to the coastal and open ocean sub-catchments. In view of hydrological applications, the correlation of TRMM and OA-NOSA30 estimates with observations increases wit
Flash-flood forecasting in an andean mountain catchment-development of a step-wise methodology based on the random forest algorithm
(2018) Muñoz Pauta, Paul Andrés; Orellana Alvear, Johanna Marlene; Willems, Patrick; Célleri Alvear, Rolando Enrique
Flash-flood forecasting has emerged worldwide due to the catastrophic socio-economic impacts this hazard might cause and the expected increase of its frequency in the future. In mountain catchments, precipitation-runoff forecasts are limited by the intrinsic complexity of the processes involved, particularly its high rainfall variability. While process-based models are hard to implement, there is a potential to use the random forest algorithm due to its simplicity, robustness and capacity to deal with complex data structures. Here a step-wise methodology is proposed to derive parsimonious models accounting for both hydrological functioning of the catchment (eg, input data, representation of antecedent moisture conditions) and random forest procedures (eg, sensitivity analyses, dimension reduction, optimal input composition). The methodology was applied to develop short-term prediction models of varying time duration (4, 8, 12, 18 and 24 h) for a catchment representative of the Ecuadorian Andes. Results show that the derived parsimonious models can reach validation efficiencies (Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient) from 0.761 (4-h) to 0.384 (24-h) for optimal inputs composed only by features accounting for 80% of the model’s outcome variance. Improvement in the prediction of extreme peak flows was demonstrated (extreme value analysis) by including precipitation information in contrast to the use of pure autoregressive models. View Full-Text
Gap filling based on a quantile perturbation factor technique
(Curran Associates, 2014) Mora Serrano, Diego Esteban; Willems, Patrick; Wyseure, Guido
The presence of gaps in hydro-meteorological series is a common problem at the moment of analyzing data series. That is the case of the Ecuadorian hydrological data series, presenting eventual gaps of short term duration. The Paute River Basin, located in the Southern Ecuadorian Andes, is one of the most monitored basins in Ecuador, with 25 rainfall observed sites during the period of 1963 till 1990. However, its data base suffers of about 20% of missing data. For this research, two techniques were evaluated comparing their efficiency in the filling of missing gaps. The first one is based on multiple linear regressions, which applies a logarithmic transformation to the data and then converts the data to normalized standard variables. The second one is a new proposed technique based on quantile perturbation approach after a classical prior gap filling. It is used to shelter estimations for high and low intensities based on: i. Identification of the station with the highest monthly correlation ii. Selection and ranking of the stations for which the correlation is significant, tested by the t-test, iii. Gap filling based on the stations with the highest significant correlation, and iv. the application of a correction factor to the filled value. For the evaluation, 3 un-interrupted daily rainfall data series were selected. Data series were deleted in a random way, simulating the 20% of missing data. The two filling techniques were applied separately. Finally, data series were evaluated by the different statistic criteria. Results indicate that the proposed technique performs an efficient filling of missing gaps. It supports the definition of gaps corresponding to high or low events and avoids, in a certain range, the averaging of the series. However, it might lead to double counting of high/low extremes events.
Impacts of climate change on catchment runoff for the Paute river basin in the southern Ecuadorian Andes (invloed van klimaatsverandering op de neerslagafstroming van het Paute-rivierbekken in de Zuid-Ecuadoriaanse Andes)
(Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2013-10-23) Mora Serrano, Diego Esteban; Willems, Patrick; Wyseure, Guido
The objective of this research is the evaluation of climate change scena rios and the impact it will have in water quantity and quality parameter s for future analysis actions of mitigation and adaptation. The evaluation will be performed at different spatial and temporal resol ution with the development of a calibrated and validated Lumped Co nceptual Hydrologic Model The research consist in three workpackages: 1. Model Development: Consistencies between a detailed local scale model and a regional scale conceptual model. < /UL> Research activities will consist in conducting the assessment of a regio nal scale model VHM (Generalized lumped conceptual and parsimonious mode l structure-identification and calibration, according to the Dutch abbre viation), reported as a draft publication of Dr. Prf. Patrick Willems, c oncerned in the analysis of hydrological processes and water quality imp rovement of the model< //UL> a) Improvement and advance of the existing model of Dr. Rolando Celleri, for the basin upstream of River Tomebamba in Monay 1260 km2 (meso-scale riverbasin) b) Same activity at subbasin scale level: Matadero basin 300 km2 and Llaviuco Basin 52 km2), and analysis of regio nal differences (in catchment properties and model parameters) 2 Scenario Development:< /UL> Analysis of trends and oscillations in climatic and hydrologic series< //UL> a) Analysis of rainfall and climatic series of long term weather station s: Analysis of rainfall series; Analysis of temperature and/or ETo series; Analysis of flow series of long term f low gauging stations. < /UL> The downscaling of the IPCC-SRES for the construction of the future clim ate use will be made of the downscaling of regional climate models, for which assistance will be searched for by INAMHI (Instituto Nacional de M eteorología en Hidrología, Quito-Guayaquil, Ecuador), also experience of the Laboratory of Hydraulics, Katholieque Universiteit Leuven)< //UL> a) Assessment and selection of available GCM simulations for rainfall, t emperature, ETo, and other relevant variables b) Development, implementation and evaluation of methodology to do wnscale GCM simulation results c) Consistency check of climate change scenarios with trends ident ified in Activity 2 for rainfall, temperature and ETo series 3 Climate change impact on hydrology: < /UL> Hydrologic impact analysis of climate change in the Tomebamba< //UL> a) Simulation of climate change scen arios developed in Activity 3 in the regional hydrologic models develope d in Activity 1 b) Statistical evaluation of climate chang e impact results c) Consistency check of climate change sce narios with trends identified in Activity 2 for rainfall, temperat ure and ETo series It is believed that the proposed research in the assessment of local and regional models of water quantity and quality and the effects of climat e change in the southern Ecuador Andes region which is of scientific but also relevant for the socio-economy aspects for the region.
Modelamiento de operación de embalses para el proyecto integral de riego en la cuenca del río Macul
(Universidad de Cuenca, 2014) Tinoco, Vicente; Willems, Patrick; Wyseure, Guido; Cisneros, Felipe; Universidad de Cuenca; Dirección de Investigación de la Universidad de Cuenca; DIUC
An irrigation project is planned in the Macul Basin Ecuador for developing the agriculture as the main income in the region. The proposed water system comprises three large reservoirs damming the rivers Macul and Maculillo. The river basin planning and operation was investigated by modelling alternative reservoir operation strategies aiming at a sustainable balance between irrigation and river ecology by integrated reservoir/river management. The model simulates the integrated water system for long term periods of data, covering also several historical extreme events. Results indicate that the planned irrigation volumes are higher than the available water for a sustainable irrigation. Two lines of action are suggested for reaching the target irrigation demands: one is to design a deficit irrigation schedule, and the second implies modification in the reservoir’s spillway height.
Parameterization of river incision models requires accounting for environmental heterogeneity: insights from the tropical andes
(2020) Campforts, Benjamin; Vanacker, Veerle; Herman, Frederic; Vanmaercke, Matthias; Schwanghart, Wolfgang; Tenorio Poma, Gustavo Eduardo; Willems, Patrick; Govers, Gerard
Landscape evolution models can be used to assess the impact of rainfall variability on bedrock river incision over millennial timescales. However, isolating the role of rainfall variability remains difficult in natural environments, in part because environmental controls on river incision such as lithological heterogeneity are poorly constrained. In this study, we explore spatial differences in the rate of bedrock river incision in the Ecuadorian Andes using three different stream power models. A pronounced rainfall gradient due to orographic precipitation and high lithological heterogeneity enable us to explore the relative roles of these controls. First, we use an area-based stream power model to scrutinize the role of lithological heterogeneity in river incision rates. We show that lithological heterogeneity is key to predicting the spatial patterns of incision rates. Accounting for lithological heterogeneity reveals a nonlinear relationship between river steepness, a proxy for river incision, and denudation rates derived from cosmogenic radionuclide (CRNs). Second, we explore this nonlinearity using runoff-based and stochastic-threshold stream power models, combined with a hydrological dataset, to calculate spatial and temporal runoff variability. Statistical modeling suggests that the nonlinear relationship between river steepness and denudation rates can be attributed to a spatial runoff gradient and incision thresholds. Our findings have two main implications for the overall interpretation of CRN-derived denudation rates and the use of river incision models: (i) applying sophisticated stream power models to explain denudation rates at the landscape scale is only relevant when accounting for the confounding role of environmental factors such as lithology, and (ii) spatial patterns in runoff due to orographic precipitation in combination with incision thresholds explain part of the nonlinearity between river steepness and CRN-derived denudation rates. Our methodology can be used as a framework to study the coupling between river incision, lithological heterogeneity and climate at regional to continental scales.
Parsimonious rainfall-runoff model construction supported by time series processing and validation of hydrological extremes – part 2: intercomparison of models and calibration approaches
(2014) Willems, Patrick; Mora Serrano, Diego Esteban; Vansteenkiste, Thomas; Teferi Taye, Meron; Van Steenbergen, Niels
An intercomparison of different approaches for the construction and calibration of lumped conceptual rainfall-runoff models is made based on two case studies with unrelated meteorological and hydrological characteristics located in two regions, Belgium and Kenya. While a model with pre-fixed ‘‘one-size-fitsall’’ model structure is traditionally used in lumped conceptual rainfall-runoff modeling, this paper shows the advantages of model structure inference from data or field evidence in a case-specific and step-wise way using non-commensurable measures derived from observed series. The step-wise model structure identification method does not lead to higher accuracy than the traditional approach when evaluated using common statistical criteria like the Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency. The method is, however, favorable to produce a well-balanced calibration obtaining accurate results for a wide range of runoff properties: total flows, quick and slow subflows, cumulative volumes, peak flows, low flows, frequency distributions of peak and low flows, changes in quick flows for given changes in rainfall. It furthermore is shown that model performance evaluation procedures that account for the flow residual serial dependency and homoscedasticity are preferred. Explicit evaluation of model results for peak and/or low flow extremes and changes in these extremes make the models useful for impact investigations on such hydrological extremes
Space-time rainfall variability in the Paute basin, Ecuadorian Andes
(2007-06-08) Célleri, Rolando; Willems, Patrick; Buytaert, Wouter; Feyen, Jan
Despite the importance of mountain ranges as water providers, knowledge of their climate variability is still limited, mostly due to a combination of data scarcity and heterogeneous orography. The tropical Andes share many of the main features of mountain ranges in general, and are subject to several climatic influences that have an effect on rainfall variability. Although studies have addressed the large-scale variation, the basin scale has received little attention. Thus, the purpose of this study was to obtain a better understanding of rainfall variability in the tropical Andes at the basin scal, utilizing the Paute River basin of southern Ecuador as a case study. Analysis of 23 rainfall stations revealed a high spatial variability in terms of: (i) large variations of mean annual precipitation in the range 660–3400 mm; (ii) the presence of a non-monotonic relation between annual precipitation and elevation; and (iii) the existence of four, sometimes contrasting, rainfall regimes. Data from seven stations for the period 1964–1998 was used to study seasonality and trends in annual, seasonal and monthly precipitation. Seasonality is less pronounced at higher elevations, confirming that in the páramo region, the main water source for Andean basins, rainfall is well distributed year round. Additionally, during the period of record, no station has experienced extreme concentrations of annual rainfall during the wet season, which supports the concept of mountains as reliable water providers. Although no regional or basin-wide trends are found for annual precipitation, positive (negative) trends during the wet (dry) season found at four stations raises the likelihood of both water shortages and the risk of precipitation-triggered disasters. The study demonstrates how variable the precipitation patterns of the Andean mountain range are, and illustrates the need for improved monitoring
Spatial and temporal rainfall variability in mountainous areas: A case study from the south Ecuadorian Andes
(2006-10-15) Buytaert, Wouter; Célleri, Rolando; Willems, Patrick; Bievre, Bert De; Wyseure, Guido
Particularly in mountain environments, rainfall can be extremely variable in space and time. For many hydrological applications such as modelling, extrapolation of point rainfall measurements is necessary. Decisions about the techniques used for extrapolation, as well as the adequacy of the conclusions drawn from the final results, depend heavily on the magnitude and the nature of the uncertainty involved. In this paper, we examine rainfall data from 14 rain gauges in the western mountain range of the Ecuadorian Andes. The rain gauges are located in the western part of the rio Paute basin. This area, between 3500 and 4100 m asl, consists of mountainous grasslands, locally called páramo, and acts as major water source for the inter-Andean valley. Spatial and temporal rainfall patterns were studied. A clear intraday pattern can be distinguished. Seasonal variation, on the other hand, is low, with a difference of about 100 mm between the dryest and the wettest month on an average of about 100 mm month−1, and only 20% dry days throughout the year. Rain gauges at a mutual distance of less than 4000 m are strongly correlated, with a Pearson correlation coefficient higher than 0.8. However, even within this perimeter, spatial variability in average rainfall is very high. Significant correlations were found between average daily rainfall and geographical location, as well as the topographical parameters slope, aspect, topography. Spatial interpolation with thiessen gives good results. Kriging gives better results than thiessen, and the accuracy of both methods improves when external trends are incorporated.
Statistical analysis on the performance of global and regional climate models for the Paute river basin in the south-ecuadorian andes
(TuTech Innovation, 2012) Mora Serrano, Diego Esteban; Tie, Liu; Cisneros Espinoza, Felipe Eduardo ; Wyseure, Guido; Willems, Patrick
Climate change impact in the Andes regions is expected to have a large influence on water resources as in many other regions of the world. However, a major problem for climate change impact studies on the region is the high spatial variability of rainfall and temperature, which is not well represented in climate models. Different Global Climate Model (GCM) simulations available from the IPCC AR4 as well as simulations from the Regional Climate Model (RCM) PRECIS have been analyzed for the Paute river basin in the South-Ecuadorian Andes. This river basin has a wide range of topographical elevations and covers different hydrological regimes, represented in this study by six weather stations. The control simulation results from the climate models were statistically checked for inconsistencies by quantifying the differences between control period and historical time series data of rainfall and temperature. This was done for annual, monthly and daily values regarding the return period. In addition statistics criteria of relative mean squared error, bias and correlation were also computed. Results show that no model performed well for all the criteria, but some models were generally better than others. The set of best performing models, however, differed from station to station. Surprisingly, several GCMs showed better results than the RCMs for rainfall. The results reveal that a strong increase in the climate model spatial resolution does not necessarily result in more accurate description of local climate properties. Therefore, statistical downscaling techniques are crucial in climate change impact studies for these regions.
Statistical spatial and temporal analysis of historical rainfall and evapotranspiration behavior for Ecuador
(Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2019-11-26) Tobar Solano, Vladimiro Alexis; Wyseure, Guido; Willems, Patrick
Statistical analysis of temporal and spatial data: example of rainfall, temperature and evapotranspiration in Ecuador Many studies in Ecuador had taken the endeavor of climate characterization, mainly referred to rainfall and temperatures, and some others to estimating evapotranspiration based on data availability. Such studies have only had local application and had focused on the rainfall gauging stations; fewer stations that have temperature records and even lesser that have information of the various parameters required for the widely used Penman - Monteith equation for estimating evapotranspiration. The main challenge in modeling climate in Ecuador comes from its location in the Intertropical convergence zone, the marine currents in the Pacific, the Amazon basin and the Andes. Therefore, characterization of climate is a first step in order to understand its spatial and temporal variability, and from here to undertake the task of generalizing meteorological elements to the whole country. There needs to be a compromise between data availability that sets boundaries to what can be done and the research objectives of spatial climate patterns. Regarding information, monthly data is available referred to rainfall, for a lesser number of stations temperature is also available; and other elements like wind speed, relative humidity, dew point, pressure, and solar radiation, are only available for a selected set of stations, making it difficult to count on them. GIS spatial data features are also available, like the SRTM DEM 90m, from which morphological characteristics can be derived. First step towards analysis is data validation. Many unforeseen circumstances affect meteorological elements measure and record until final presentation of raw data, and one of the most widely used technique to detect systematic errors is the double mass curve analysis, which will be applied mainly to rainfall information, time series plots may also help identifying errors in other elements like temperatures. Spatial distribution of rainfall will be addressed by means of distribution and seasonal rainfall patterns that will enable categorizing climatic regions. Correlation analysis will be used to estimate missing values and also to estimate ungauged parameters. The main aim is to contribute to a better understanding of climate in Ecuador; by means of models including Andes mountain range and Amazon and coastal regions, for the estimation of various elements like rainfall, temperature and evapotranspiration. Spatial regions with different behavior in rainfall, temperatures and evapotranspiration will be identified. Last but not least, since Ecuador is heavily affected by the extreme anomalies of ENSO, whose presence causes long term heavy rainfalls, and floods, climate characterization should consider its influence.