Abstract:
Tropical mountain
regions contain the main
headwaters of important
rivers in Central America.
We selected 2
contrasting catchments
located in a mountainous
region to evaluate the
precision of daily flow
estimates based on the
Hydrological Land Use Change (HYLUC) and Nedbør-
Afstrømnings Model (NAM) hydrological models. A second
objective was to simulate the impact of expected climate
change for the year 2050 on stream flows and seasonal
distribution of rainfall. We studied the catchments of the
Tempisquito and Cucaracho streams, located in the Guanacaste volcanic mountain range of Costa Rica, from
April 2008 to October 2010. Modeling of discharge using the
NAM and HYLUC models suggested difficulties in their
calibration due to intrinsic catchment characteristics
because of their volcanic origin. The climate change scenario
applied in both catchments depicted a strong reduction in
discharge. However, the Cucaracho catchment, on the
Caribbean slope, is predicted to experience a smaller
reduction in discharge than the Tempisquito catchment,
located on the Pacific slope.
