Project 4-070 Colombia

Partnerships for enhanced engagement in research (PEER)
Cycle 4 (2015 Deadline)

Satellite-based estimations of river discharge into the Cartagena Bay, Caribbean Colombia: Capacity building to mitigate sources of upstream runoff and associated risks of pollution

PI: Juan D. Restrepo (jdrestre@eafit.edu.co), Universidad EAFIT
U.S. Partner: Robert Brakenridge, University of Colorado
Project Dates: October 2015 - April 2020

Project Overview

4-70 Q4 2016 RestrepoJuan Restrepo (Project PI, center) during the post

Dr. Restrepo (center) during the poster session at AGU Fall 2016 with U.S. partners Albert Kettner (left), Associate Director of the Darmouth Flood Observatory-UC and Professor James Syvitski, Director of the CSDMS at University of Colorado

The city of Cartagena and its bay, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, have a limited capacity for water resource management, as evident in the degradation of coastal water quality. During the last six decades, coastal fisheries and ecosystems (sea grasses and coral reefs, for example) have almost disappeared, and Cartagena Bay is considered one of the Caribbean’s “hot spots” for pollution due to human-induced stressors impacting water quality and ecosystems services. Flooding has also been devastating. During the wet season, in strong La Niña years, flooding has caused many fatalities and infrastructural and agricultural damages of over $7.8 billion. Mitigation of such disasters lacks data-supported scientific approaches for evaluating river response to extreme climate events. Ground-based data on river discharge and flood magnitudes are often not readily available for decision makers of many developing nations, including Colombia, preventing data-supported scientific approaches for evaluating river response to extreme climate events.

The ambiguity of the problem means that mitigation strategies are lacking. This PEER project team aimed to generate a clearer and more precise foundation of knowledge on continental runoff fluxes and related marine pollution problems to inform the development of adaptive strategies at both the community and political level. This effort was a collaboration between the Dartmouth Flood Observatory at the University of Colorado and EAFIT University-Colombia. The researchers’ main goals included estimating river discharge from the Dique Canal-Magdalena River system into Cartagena Bay by applying satellite-derived measurements; identifying climate variability and human impacts for the Magdalena River basin, making satellite-based data available as GIS files to be incorporated into decision-support systems; and developing capacity for satellite-based river freshwater estimation.

Final Summary of Project Activities

Dr. Restrepo and his colleagues used a satellite-based technique to measure river discharge at selected sites for the main northern Andean River, the Magdalena, back calculating daily river discharges over a period of two decades, thus making it possible to determine return intervals of significant flood events. Their findings show that satellite-based river discharges capture the inter-annual variability of stream flow measured at ground-based gauging stations, the natural seasonality of water discharge along the lower Magdalena floodplains, and the peak discharges that were observed during La Niña events in 2008-2009 and 2010-2011.

The La Niña events are likely more accurate compared to ground-based gauging stations, as ground-based stations tend to overflow during large flood events and as such are hampered in accurately monitoring peak discharges. The PEER team also found that these derived discharges can form the base to study river-floodplain connectivity, providing environmental decision makers with a technique to better monitor river and ecosystem processes.

The PEER team also convened a workshop, in which the PI and three other scientists developed a syllabus for a course on Rivers of the Americans in the Anthropocene, presenting it to graduate programs of the researchers’ four universities. The team also developed a new graduate course at EAFIT, inspired by the PEER project and its findings, called “Watershed Management for Environmental Protection.”

The PI and U.S. partner published their findings, presented their work at an AGU Oceans meeting in early 2020, and published a special report in the journal El Eafitense. The satellite daily water discharge data have been incorporated in the dynamic model of runoff dispersion into the bay, and the team shared their findings and technique for obtaining satellite-derived water discharge in near real time with the technical team at the Magdalena River Environmental Authority. The data will be incorporated in the GPS navigation system along the river, especially for assessing discharge variability in some river reaches.

Publications

Luz Jiménez-Segura, Juan D. Restrepo-Ángel, and Andrés Hernandez-Serna. 2022. Drivers for the artisanal fisheries production in the Magdalena River. Frontiers in Environmental Science 10:866575. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.866575

Juan D. Restrepo A., Albert J. Kettner, and G. Robert Brakenridge. 2020. Monitoring water discharge and floodplain connectivity for the northern Andes utilizing satellite data: A tool for river planning and science-based decision-making. Journal of Hydrology 586: 124887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.124887

Juan D. Restrepo and Heber A. Escobar. 2018. Sediment load trends in the Magdalena River basin (1980–2010): Anthropogenic and climate-induced causes. Geomorphology 302: 76-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2016.12.013

Rogger Escobar C., Juan D. Restrepo, G.R. Brakenridge, and A.J. Kettner, A.J. 2017. Satellite-Based Estimation of Water Discharge and Runoff in the Magdalena River, Northern Andes of Colombia. In: Lakshmi, V. (eds) Remote Sensing of Hydrological Extremes. Springer Remote Sensing/Photogrammetry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-43744-6_1

J.D. Restrepo, A.J. Kettner, and J.P.M. Syvitski. 2015. Recent deforestation causes rapid increase in river sediment load in the Colombian Andes. Anthropocene 10: 13-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2015.09.001


October 30-November 3, 2017 field trip: team members in the boat and in the Barbacoas lagoon.	Measuring water discharge in the Magdalena River [Photos courtesy of Dr. Restrepo]

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