| Abstract: | Neotropical alpine wetlands, or so-called p©Łramos, are one of the primary sources of freshwater in the Northern Andes. P©Łramos present a huge water storage and regulation capacity, which occur as a function of their geographic location, topography, soil composition, and endemic vegetation coverage. However, during the last decades, the rapid transformation of Andean landscapes into productivity lands have negatively impacted the p©Łramos. Studies show that changes in land coverage can irreversibly alter the physical properties of the soils and decrease the water yield and regulation capacity. In addition, the projected increase in the mean air temperature due to climate change can naturally shift the vegetation patterns in p©Łramo areas and worsen the hydrological impacts. These anthropogenic and natural disturbances constitute a constant threat to the livelihood of 135 million people who depend on the services provided by p©Łramos. Hydrological models have been widely applied to evaluate the impacts of natural and human disturbances on Andean catchments. Overall, models have shown satisfactory performance for runoff simulation, but their application in p©Łramo catchments are limited because of the reduced availability of hydrometeorological data. Thus, hydrological assessments in p©Łramo catchments are prone to large uncertainties and modeling outcomes may misrepresent the p©Łramos behavior. Hence, a proper representation of the p©Łramos⁰́₉ hydrology through hydrological modeling remains a challenge. This study used high-resolution hydrometeorological data to evaluate the suitability of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for simulating the rainfall-runoff response of an Andean p©Łramo catchment. SWAT was forced to simulate runoff by saturation excess, and the model setup included a detailed description of soil properties at different depths. SWAT performance was evaluated through graphical and statistical metrics, and through the distribution of the local water balance. The validated SWAT model was applied to evaluate the relations among land coverage, soil hydro-physical properties, runoff generation, and catchment storage. Finally, this study evaluated the hydrological impacts due to pine afforestation on the water yield and water storage capacity of tropical alpine catchments. The electronic version of this dissertation is accessible from https://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/197821 |
|---|