Monitoring Of Hazards And Urban Growth In Villavicencio, Colombia, Using Scanned Air Photos And Satellite Imagery

Abstract

A method is presented to monitor the development of geomorphic hazard areas by overlaying time series of air photos in a digital image processing system. The present study deals with such hazards affecting an urban area, Villavicencio at the foot of the eastern Andes in Colombia. The relevant windows of the air photos are digitized by flat-bed scanning and then transformed geometrically to be overlain on SPOT panchromatic imagery where available. The 10 m resolution of the satellite imagery allows, in practice, sufficient detail to bring out the differences, which are a yardstick to monitor the development of the phenomenon over time. Where no SPOT panchromatic imagery is available, one of the photos may be taken as a reference; registration to a topographic base map is also possible. A development over time to the present hazardous situations can be read from the analyzed imagery. Air photo series dating back to 1937 are available for this research, in the context of a geomorphic hazards study currently undertaken in the eastern Colombian Andes front where it pushes against the Llanos Orientales. The mountain front is quite steep and high, and the contact with the plains is very abrupt. A thrust fault zone in which the rocks are strongly mylonitized, marks the eastern front. Villavicencio lies just below this zone, but its main access road has to cross it. The terrain is mostly made up of Mesozoic and Palaeozoic sedimentary series, with prominent black lutites; Tertiary sedimentaries are found in the foreland. All rocks are strongly folded and faulted. Precipitation is in the order of 3500–5500 mm per year. Records on river discharge events are scarce or absent. Seismic events are frequent in the area. This area is prone to strong and rapid geomorphic processes posing hazards to the inhabitants. The town of Villavicencio is the gateway to the Llanos Orientales. It is the major town for hundreds of kilometres around, and a commercial, educational and health centre for the whole eastern region of Colombia. It is connected to Santa Fe de Bogota, the national Capital, by the only highway to the Llanos, which traverses very difficult terrain through the Eastern Andes, and is cut frequently by landslides, bridge collapse etc., as a result of the torrential rainfall and the instability of the terrain. A major hazard is a big landslip known as the Mirador, close to Villavicencio, on the main road to Bogota. Its rapid advancement has caused numerous road closures; its growth could be monitored on the scanned and registered air photos. The shifting and flooding of the Guatiquia River threatens the left bank, on which the airport of Villavicencio is situated. The development of the flood hazard, and the areal extent of the area threatened, is monitored and measured on the scanned and referenced air photos. The areal growth of the town of Villavicencio itself could likewise be monitored and measured.