The effect of changes in vegetation cover on the hydrological response of the sub-basin Los Pozos

Abstract

In the current study the SWAT hydrological simulation model was implemented in the sub basin Los Pozos, located in the Aquitania municipality, department of Boyacá, Colombia, in order to quantify the effect caused by changes from plant cover in the hydrological response. The affordmentioned was evaluated in recovery scenarios, which were formulated taking into account the territory planning instruments, and scenarios the agricultural expansion frontiers. The model was manually calibrated and validated to improve its prediction capacity by means of the coefficient of R2 determination, the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency index and percentage bias (Percent Bias-PBIAS), making the sensitivity analysis previously, which facilitated the calibration process. Once the model hydrologically represented the subbasin the scenarios were created, allowing identifying the handling in terms of plant cover that can be implemented to favor water regulation.

Keywords

• hydrological response
• SWAT
• subbasin
• water regulation
• plant cover.