Published
2014-01-07
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Evaluation of the susceptibility to desertification in the municipality of Cartagena, Colombia

DOI: https://doi.org/10.22490/21456453.947
Section
Artículos de Investigación
Tatiana Sierra Labastidas Bióloga, estudiante de maestría en Ciencias Ambientales
Héctor Lopez Salgado Instituto Geográfico Agustín Codazzi. Bogotá. Colombia.
Cesar Tamaris Turizo Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Universidad del Magdalena. Santa Marta. Colombia.

In this research it was evaluated the dynamic of the climatic variables, precipitation and temperature with the objective of characterizing the municipality of Cartagena. The water index and the aridity index were calculated, to evaluate the susceptibility to desertification. It was identified susceptible areas in the process of desertification of Cartagena, to formulate strategies for proper use of the soil. Results indicate that the variable temperature recorded important changes during the study (1941 - 2008), with average variations above 1 °C. Multi-annual average precipitation ranged from 817.8 mm and 1310 mm. There were two climatic periods, the rain period and the dry period. It was found that the water balance is negative because the values of the evapotranspiration always exceeded the recorded values of precipitation. The aridity index varied between 0.46 and 0.56 corroborating the dry condition of the area, it can be concluded that the climatic conditions present in the municipality of Cartagena, favor the process of desertification in this country area.