General Information

¨ Calibration of An Hydrologic Model for the Determination
of Water Volumes Flowing In a Tropical Rain Forest:
Panama Canal Watershed ¨

SENACYT Code: Col06-013

Description and objectives. This project will be developed by the Centro de Investigaciones Hidráulicas e Hidrotécnicas (CIHH) of the Universidad Tecnológica de Panamá (UTP) together with researchers from the ¨New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology¨ (NMT) and the ¨University of Wyoming¨ (UW). This work intends to study and quantify different hydrological processes within a micro-basin in Cerro Pelado, Gamboa (approx 1 km2), to improve the validation and calibration of hydrological models currently used by institutions such as the Autoridad del Canal de Panamá (ACP). The main benefit of this project will be to improve the reliability in the estimation of water volumes flowing into different hydrological cycle components  in the Panama Canal watershed.  By extension, this work can be applied to similar tropical watersheds in other regions. A long term objective of this research will be to establish a permanent tropical hydrology field laboratory for teaching and research purposes. At the end, we expect that the results of our work will used by the UTP, NMT, UW, ACP and the Autoridad Nacional de Ambiente (ANAM).

 

Target

 

With the institutional capacity and research generated by this project, UTP expects to submit new research proposals at the international level. In the long term, it is expected to have a Permanent Tropical Hydrology Field Laboratory in Cerro Pelado, which will provide continuous, reliable and more complete data of a Humid Tropical Basin. This Laboratory will be very useful for both Panamanians, and international researchers.

 

Objetives

 

In particular, this project seeks to:

  • Develop a database of basic hydrological field variables.
  • Evaluate the scenarios developed in previous studies in the Panama Canal Watershed .
  • Calibration of hydrological models under Tropical Watershed conditions.
  • Development of national capacities and technology transfer in the field.
  • Divulgation of the results obtained.

Expected benefits. This project will bring the following benefits: a) Transfer and knowledge exchange between researchers and foreign experts in hydrological topics b) The acquisition by the ACP and ANAM of valuable information about water resources in the Panama Canal Watershed both from a technical and a policy-setting standpoints. c) Obtain the necessary infrastructure to complete a Field Tropical Hydrology Laboratory in our country, and d) Capacity development at institutional level.

 

Duration. This project started on January 4, 2007 with an original duration of 18 months. However, It has been extended and it will run until the end of 2008. Funding for this research comes from the National Secretariat for Science and Technology (SENACYT for its initials in Spanish) of Panama.