ASSESSMENT OF CLIMATE INDICES IN DRYLANDS OF COLOMBIA Fredy Hernando NEIRA MENDEZ “Con el apoyo del Programa Alßan, Programa de becas de alto nivel de la Unión Europea para América Latina, beca nº E04M034769CO” “Supported by the Programme Alßan, the European Union Programme of High Level Scholarships for Latin America, scholarship No.(E04M034769CO)”. Al artífice de mi existencia, A Mery y Ricardo los Autores de mis días A Ada, Julian y Juan ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work has been possible thanks to the contributions of many people. First I owe my special gratitude to the ALBAN programme for the funding to develop this Master Programme in Europe. I wish to gratefully acknowledge the invaluable help of my promoter Prof. Dr. ir. Donald Gabriels for his guidance and supervision and his interest in study desertification in Latin America. I want to give special thanks to the IDEAM, University of Valle in Colombia and the PHI-LAC project for supporting me with data of meteorological stations. Specially thanks to Yesid Carvajal and Martha Liliana in Cali, Colombia. I also want to give my thanks to my friends Wim Verstraete and Vernon Dabalos for their help and support. The support, love and sacrifice of my family and friends from Colombia. ABSTRACT Climate indices are used to determine drylands in seven different geographical zones of Colombia. These zones are selected from previous studies as the areas with land degradation and desertification problems. With secondary information of 391 stations the following indices are evaluated: Lang (1915), Thornthwaite (1948), De Martonne (1926), Emberger (1930), UNEP (1997) and Bagnouls-Gaussen (1957). From those, only the Lang, UNEP and Thornthwaite indices show drylands in Colombia although all of them result in different classification for each region. Aggressivity of rainfall is evaluated using the Modified Fournier Index (MFI) (Arnoldus, 1980). The Caribbean, Magdalena, Santanderes and Nariño are the zones with higher aggressivity of rainfall. The Guajira zone however has index values between low and very low aggressivity. Seasonality of rainfall is evaluated using the Precipitation Concentration Index (PCI) (Oliver, 1980). For almost all the zones, the areas with high seasonality are those classified as dry lands, and the areas with low seasonality are the more humid ones. The Erosivity index (ErIn) is estimated using the CORINE (1995) methodology. The Caribbean zone shows a high erosivity index. Santanderes, Nariño and Magdalena zones have moderate to high values. The Guajira and Cauca zones have dominant moderate values and the Cundiboyacense between low to moderate erosivity. SAMENVATTING Klimaatindexen worden gebruikt voor het bepalen van ‘droge gebieden’ in verschillende geografische zones van Colombia. Deze zones werden geselekteerd uit vroegere studies als gebieden onderhevig aan landdegradatie en desertificatie problemen. Met meteorologische gegevens van 391 weerstations worden de volgende indexen berekend: Lang (1915), Thornthwaite (1948), De Martonne (1926), Emberger (1930), UNEP (1997) en Bagnouls-Gaussen (1957). Enkel de Lang, UNEP en Thornthwaite indexen toonden de ‘droge gebieden’ in Colombia aan, alhoewel met al de indexen verschillende ariditeitsklassen werden bekomen. De aggresiviteit van de neerslag werd geëvalueerd met de ‘Aangepaste Fournier Index (Modified Fournier Index MFI) (Arnoldus, 1980). De Caribbean, Magdalena, Santanderes en Nariño zijn de zones met de hoogste neerslagaggressiviteit. De Guarjira zone heeft evenwel een lage tot zeer lage neerslagaggressiviteit. De seizoensverdeling van de neerslag werd geëvalueerd door middel van de Neerslag Concentratie Index (Precipitation Concentration Index PCI) (Oliver, 1980). Voor nagenoeg al de zones werden de gebieden met de hoogste seizoensverdeling geklasseerd als ‘droge gebieden’, de zones met weinig (laag) seizoensverdeling zijn dan meer humied. De erosiviteitsindex (ErIn) werd bepaald volgens de CORINE (1995) methode. De Caribbean zone heeft een hoge erosiviteitsindex. Santanderes, Nariño en Magdalena hebben middelmatige tot hoge waarden. Ook de Guajira en Cauca zones hebben overwegend middelmatige waarden terwijl in de Cundiboyacense zone er een laag tot middelmatige erosivitiet heerst. ILLUSTRATIONS LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Location of Colombia in South America................................................................. 15 Figure 2. Main Natural Regions of Colombia (IGAC, 1999) ................................................ 15 Figure 3. Micro Regions of Colombia (IGAC, 1999)............................................................ 16 Figure 4. Lang climate classification of Colombia (IDEAM, 2001) ..................................... 21 Figure 5. De Martonne classification of Colombia (IDEAM, 2001)..................................... 22 Figure 6. Thornthwaite classification of Colombia (IDEAM, 2001)..................................... 23 Figure 7. Average Annual Precipitation Distribution in Colombia (IDEAM, 2001) ............. 24 Figure 8. Land use and cover in Colombia (IGAC, 2003)..................................................... 28 Figure 9. Main processes of soil degradation in Colombia (IDEAM 2001)........................... 29 Figure 10. Zones with potential of desertification in Colombia (IDEAM, 2001). ................ 32 Figure 11. Location of the study zones................................................................................... 34 Figure 12. Location of meteorological stations and precipitation distribution in the Guajira zone................................................................................................................................. 43 Figure 13. Location of climate stations and precipitation distribution in the Caribbean plateaus ........................................................................................................................... 45 Figure 14. Precipitation distribution and meteorological stations in the Santanderes and Cesar zone................................................................................................................................. 46 Figure 15. Precipitation distribution and climate stations in the Cundiboyacense high plateau ......................................................................................................................................... 47 Figure 16. Precipitation distribution and meteorological stations in the High Magdalena River basin ................................................................................................................................ 48 Figure 17. Precipitation distribution and meteorological stations in the Cauca valley .......... 49 Figure 18. Precipitation distribution and climate stations in Nariño and Popayan high plateaus ........................................................................................................................... 50 i Figure 19. Climate classifications of the Guajira peninsula .................................................. 52 Figure 20. Omberothermic curves for the Guajira peninsula ................................................ 54 Figure 21. Climate classifications of the Caribbean plateaus................................................ 58 Figure 22. Bagnouls - Gaussen Index distribution in the Caribbean plateaus....................... 59 Figure 23. Omberothermic curves for some stations of the Caribbean plateaus ................... 60 Figure 24. Climate classifications of the Santanderes and Cesar zone................................. 63 Figure 25. Bagnouls - Gaussen Index distribution in the Santanderes and Cesar zone......... 64 Figure 26. Omberothermic curves different stations in the Santanderes and Cesar .............. 65 Figure 27. Climate classifications of the Cundiboyacense high plateau ............................... 68 Figure 28. Bagnouls - Gaussen Index distribution in the Cundiboyacense High plateau...... 69 Figure 29. Omberothermic curves for the Cundiboyacense high plateau.............................. 70 Figure 30. Tatacoa named “desert”........................................................................................ 73 Figure 31. Climate zones of the High Magdalena River basin.............................................. 74 Figure 32. Bagnouls - Gaussen Index distribution in the High Magdalena River basin ....... 75 Figure 33. Omberothermic curves for the Magdalena river basin ......................................... 76 Figure 34. Climate classifications of the Cauca valley.......................................................... 78 Figure 35. Bagnouls - Gaussen Index distribution in the Cauca valley................................. 79 Figure 36. Omberothermic curve for the Cauca valley.......................................................... 80 Figure 37. Climate classifications of the Nariño and Popayan high plateaus........................ 83 Figure 38. Bagnouls - Gaussen Index of Nariño and Popayan............................................. 84 Figure 39. Omberothermic curves for the Nariño and Popayan high plateaus...................... 85 Figure 40a -40b. Linear relationship between PCI1 and PCI2 in the study zones ............... 87 Figure 41. Seasonal and Temporal Rainfall Distribution of the Guajira peninsula............... 88 Figure 42. Seasonal and Temporal Rainfall Distribution in the Caribbean plateaus............. 89 Figure 43. PCI Distribution in the Santanderes and Cesar zone............................................ 90 Figure 44. PCI Distribution in the
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