ESTIMATTON OF BUDYKO´ ADIMENSIONAL RELATTON IN COLOMBIA

Abstract

Water and energy budgets in river basins are crucial for terrain formation, spatial distribution, and vegetation productivity. The Budyko non-dimensional number is defined as the relationship between mean annual precipitation (P) and mean annual evapotranspiration (PET), B = P / PET, in river basins. This non-dimensional number is defined as the ratio between available water (P) and available energy (PET) and has been employed to identify water storage in vegetation, dryness, and net primary production in ecosystems. Literature reports have found that at B = 1 condition, denominated Budyko critical condition, Bc, there exist particular climatic, geomorphologic, and biodiversity conditions which make this number of particular interest in hydroclimatology and ecology fields. Budyko number maps with a spatial resolution of 5 arcmin cell size for Colombia extent, and others with 30 seconds cell size for Antioquia extent, are presented. Many non-direct methods for potential evapotranspiration estimation have been employed. It concludes that Colombia is characterized by energy-limited vegetation.