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Copyright: 2013 Esri, DeLorme, NAVTEQ
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Tempisque Watershed
Rivers
% Cities
Lake Arenal
" Hydroelectric plant
Pipe
Irrigation canals
Palo Verde National Park
Wetlands

Gulf of Nicoya
Pacific Ocean
Nicoya Gulf
Hydrological Data Collection in a Costa Rican Watershed and its
Downstream Remote Wetland: Challenges, methodology and lessons learned
Allce Alonso
1
, 8afael Munoz-Carpena
1
, Mlguel A. Campo-8escs
2
, Carollna Murcla
3,4
, Mahmood Sasa
4
1
Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department, University of Florida.
2
Projects and Rural Engineering Department, Public University of Navarre, Spain.
3
Duke University,
4
Organization for Tropical Studies
Contact: alice.alonso@ufl.edu
Time series data encode the history of a system. The availability of long term and comprehensive time
series would allow to track changes, detect emerging patterns, establish potential causal relationships and
eventually inform sustainable management of water resources, restoration and management strategies.
In developing countries, this is often challenged by a lack of resources and expertise, along with an often
short-term and fragmented vision, and unstandardized procedure related with data collection and storage.
PROJECT BACKGROUND METHODOLOGY
Data access in developing countries is impeded by institutional and governance obstacles, since they are
considered as private and potentially economic-leveraging tools. Vision shift has to be operated for the data to
rather be seen as a tremendous tool to support the sustainable development of the country.
Existing data are scattered amongst different institutions and in different formats. Centralizing the data
and treating them is another major obstacle when working with historical data.
Errors happen very easily with such sophisticated sensors. The existing eld expertise by local staff has to be
combined with sound theoretical training, and the instrumentation network managed in an adaptative fashion
for the final data to be reliable.
To ensure the continuity of the data collection for further studies, awareness still needs to be raised for the field
staff to move from a fragmented to a long term data collection vision.
OBJECTIVES of the DATA COLLECTION
Figure 3: Chart field of the data collection strategy . It highlights the adaptative strategy implemented to ensure data quality
and field staff autonomy when related with the instrumentation network in PV . By the end of the project we aim the OTS staff
to be autonomous and so erase the dashed blue line from the diagram.
RESSOURCES and CHALLENGES
Historical time series of discharge and
meteorological data in the watershed and
Palo Verde National Park
Partnership with
On-site research station
managed by OTS >
infrastructure +
technical staff
Harsh field conditions
Difficulty of access
Limited
budget
Figure 2: Palo Verde wetland in 1980 and 2010 during the wet
season, showing the invasion by dense cattail (Carolina Murcia).
Palo Verde Wetland 1980
Figure 1: Map of the Tempisque watershed locating the different
human infrastructures having transformed the system during the last
decades. The situation of the Palo Verde National Park in the lower part
of the -+catchment makes it vulnerable to those changes.
Figure 4: Instrumentation network map (f), and pictures of sensors used and of some infrastructures. (a) Logging Rain Gauge RG2M, Onset Computer Corp; (b) Rainfall station;
(c) Piezometers for ground (left) and superficial ( right) waters level measurement; (d) Water level datalogger Solinst Levellogger Edge; (e) Selfcontained canal recorder
(figure 6). (g) Stream discharge measurement platform; (h) Water runoff measurement station; (i) Weather station Campbell Scientific.
(b)
(c) (d)
(e)
(f) (g)
(h)
(a)
(i)
Solid historical data set built, after significant effort.
Access to important data is still restricted by public and private national
institutions.
Instrumentation network built and staff trained in an iterative and adaptive
fashion. Full autonomy targeted by the end of the project (2016).
Inexpensive sensors allowed to measure additional variables in a limited-
budget context.
Data standardized and centralized in the Hydrobase server.
Data base in continuous construction to support this and further studies.
RESULTS and PERSPECTIVES
(1) Compile a historical hydrological dataset in the watershed and PV wetland.
(2) Measure the local and global variables influencing the hydroperiod and water volumes in the PV wetland
The hydrological landscape of the Tempisque watershed (NWCosta Rica) has been significantly
transformed with the implementation of a large-scale hydropower-irrigation project (figure 1). The
mechanisms governing this complex water-subsidized system and their consequences remain poorly
understood and characterized.
Palo Verde (PV) wetland have been facing severe degradations (figure 2).
They might have been triggered by the changes in the upper Tempisque watershed (figure 1).
Data scattered; Institutional and
governance obstacles; Missing values;
Data quality
Remote access
Plotting and statistical analysis capabilities
Data centralization and standardization
Figure 5: Screenshots from the Hydrobase web server showing some of its capabilities.
In the third frame, red line indicates the water level in the wetland, and the blue bars
indicate the precipitations from 5/2013 to 5/2014.
Palo Verde Wetland 2010
Acknowledgement: We would like to give a special thank you to the NSF and Tropical Conservation and Development Center and ABE Department for their financial support. Special thanks to Organization for Tropical Studies for the data provided and the great collaboration during the implementation of the
instrumentation network and the current data recollection. Thank you also to IMN and ICE and all intermediates for sharing their data.
Reference: Schumann, A. And R. Muoz-Carpena. 2002. A simple Self-Contained Canal Storage Recorder. Applied Engineering in Agriculture 18(6):20-25
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LESSONS LEARNED
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Figure 6: Material used in the construction of a stage-recorder.
This automatic digital data logger presents the advantages to be
inexpensive (~$160/unit), sturdy and made with off-the-shelf material which
allows their complete construction and maintenance in-site (Schumann and
Muoz-Carpena. 2002).