Abstract

PESSACG, Natalia et al. Producción de agua en la cuenca del río Limay: modelado y Calibración. Meteorologica [online]. 2018, vol.43, n.2, pp.3-23. ISSN 1850-468X.

In this study, we carried out a sensitivity analysis and calibration of the InVEST model and we tested its performance to simulate annual water yield for the Limay River Basin. Water yield is an important hydrological ecosystem service which results from the evaporation-precipitation budget, and also depends on land cover and soil characteristics. We evaluated the sensitivity of water yield to different precipitation and land use/ land cover databases. These simulations allowed us to rank the Limay River sub-basins according to their annual water yield. This ranking, showed that Aluminé is the subbasin with the largest water yield, followed by Nahuel Huapi subbasin. The sensitivity analysis to the precipitation databases demonstrates the need for using precipitation databases with high spatial resolution and high density of meteorological stations when modelling studies at the basin scale are performed. The NPCG precipitation database, generated for North Patagonia with high meteorological station density, produced the best results and allowed for a good model calibration. The simulations performed using different global or quasi-global precipitation databases showed an important dispersion in the results. Results also suggest that water yield sensitivity to land use/land cover is lower than to precipitation. However, when relevant mismatches among land use/land cover databases were located in the headwater subbasins, simulated water yield showed important differences. The best model performance (error less than 10% in annual water yield) was obtained using the SERENA land use/land cover database together with the NPCG precipitation database and a value of 15 for the eco-hydrological parameter Z.

Keywords : Producción de agua; Water Yield; Limay River Basin; InVEST Model; Precipitation; Land use/land cover.