Accelerated and disorganized urbanization has been a phenomenon that has produced adverse effects on the hydrological cycle in urban watersheds in Latin America, generating the loss of fundamental hydrological processes and leading to flooding problems. This study focuses on the analysis of the variation of the hydrological response as a consequence of land cover change in a tropical urban watershed, located in Costa Rica, from 1945 to 2019. The study site is the Quebrada Seca-Burio river watershed, which increased its urban area by 64 percentage points and has caused an 80% increase in its runoff volume, a 220% increase in peak flow and maximum specific flow, as well as a 25-minute decrease in the time to peak of the hydrograph. The analysis was carried out based on the spatial-temporal classification of satellite images with Landsat sensors and aerial images to determine the change in land cover, as well as the development of a hydraulic model to estimate the hydrological response of the watershed. The study allowed the identification of critical areas with respect to runoff volume generation and was placed in context with all flood events reported in Costa Rican newspapers, and serves as a basis for decision making regarding the implementation of flood risk mitigation measures and the planning of future urbanization.
Ricardo Bonilla Brenes, Martín Morales, Rafael Oreamuno & Jochen Hack (2023) Variation in the hydrological response within the Quebrada Seca watershed in Costa Rica resulting from an increase of urban land cover, Urban Water Journal, 20:5, 575-591, DOI: 10.1080/1573062X.2023.2204877
