Good news for hydrological monitoring

Cenicaña presented in Brazil his experience in measuring the impact of environmental activities in the Guabas and Bolo river basins.

Hydrometric monitoring station in the Aguaclara sub-basin.

Stanford University, a member of the Natural Capital Project (NatCap) foundation, in charge of monitoring the socio-economic impact of the activities carried out by the Water for Life and Sustainability Fund (FAPVS) announced a support of US $ 46,000 it provides the hydrological monitoring carried out by Cenicaña in the basins of the Guabas and Bolo rivers.

The announcement was made last August, in Camboríu, Brazil, during the international workshop 'Monitoring: from theory to practice', attended by Cenicaña and FAPVS with sixteen other Latin American water funds and in which the Colombian case stood out for the work done.

These resources will be used in the installation of the fifth station for the automatic monitoring of sediments and flow; in expanding the pluviometric network with twelve teams and in installing three compact meteorological stations to understand the rain - flow relationship in the study area.

About the event

During the workshop, the achievements, drawbacks and challenges of different monitoring experiences in Brazil, Bolivia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru and Colombia, among others, were discussed and analyzed. There, between one comment and another, the work carried out by FAPVS came to light, particularly with hydrological monitoring.

As explained by Fanny Hoyos, agricultural engineer from Cenicaña and who attended the event, “as a pilot case, the experiences of measurement activities in the Los Lulos micro-basin, on the Guabas river, and the Aguaclara sub-basin, on the Bolo river, have served as starting point so that the other Funds can correct inconveniences encountered on the go, for example, in the selection of level and sediment sensors according to the purposes of the project ”.

In addition, he added, the Colombian case stood out for the quality and quantity of measurement indicators, since while Cenicaña hydrological monitoring measures water level, sediment concentration, channel condition with its parameters (contamination, structure and condition of ravines ), state of the riverside vegetation and livestock access, other monitoring does not measure all these hydrological variables, or measurements of water quality are made in periods that do not really show a trend.

The event also revealed that the Colombian experience was selected as one of the six success stories to be included in a publication to be carried out by the Latin American Alliance of Water Funds; and it will be incorporated into the promotional material of The Nature Conservancy (TNC), the entity that leads the monitoring project with Cenicaña.

“During the workshop, the ability to obtain and manage the data with which the hydrological monitoring by Cenicaña is being carried out was evident; I think that in the future it will be a model to follow –explained Pedro Moreno, director of FAPVS, who specified: Furthermore, the integration scheme of the institutional framework of the sugar sector, including water user associations, is a unique model in Latin America "

Information letter
Year 2 / Number 2 / December 2014

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