Abstract
Costa Rica’s annual mean precipitation is above 3300 mm, but this precipitation is not evenly distributed in time or space, producing clear differentiated wet and dry seasons in most of the country. Droughts are also common phenomena which greatly affect the availability of water resources. Managed aquifer recharge (MAR) schemes are being taken into consideration to enhance the underground water storage capacity of the country. The present study constitutes the first assessment for the identification of suitable sites for the implementation of MAR technology spreading methods (SM) in Costa Rica. The suitable sites are identified by means of a geographic information system multi-criteria decision analysis (GIS-MCDA) based on four criteria: hydrogeological aptitude, terrain slope, top soil texture and drainage network density. Four steps are performed in order to identify these sites: problem definition, screening for suitable areas, suitability mapping, and sensitivity analysis. The suitability map was divided in two zones after the screening: suitable and unsuitable, the first zone was further divided in five classes according to the weighted linear combination (WLC) ranking. The results indicate that 61% of the country is suitable for conducting SM. This map is a tool for future implementation of MAR techniques in the country.
Highlights
Costa Rica is located in the Central America isthmus in the northern hemisphere tropical zone, between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea with a total surface area of 51,100 km2 [1].The country’s climate is tropical, dominated by trade winds and its mountain systems [2]
The results indicate that more than half (61.0%) of the country’s surface is suitable for direct
Discussion application of spreading methods (SM) schemes is based on four criteria: hydrogeological aptitude, terrain slope, soil texture, and drainage
Summary
Costa Rica is located in the Central America isthmus in the northern hemisphere tropical zone, between the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea with a total surface area of 51,100 km2 [1]. The country’s climate is tropical, dominated by trade winds and its mountain systems [2]. This leads to a mean annual rainfall of over 3300 mm—of which two-thirds become runoff [3]. This amount of water is not distributed, neither in time nor space. The mountain ranges are composed mainly of volcanic formations, while the Northern and Tortuguero lowlands and the coastal areas are mostly alluvial depositions from eroded material transported from the elevated steep
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