@phdthesis{Salva2019,
  type      = {Master Thesis},
  author    = {Juan Sebastian Salva},
  title     = {Hydrological Modelling of La Picasa Lagoon (Argentina)},
  url       = {https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hbz:832-epub4-13848},
  year      = {2019},
  abstract  = {La Picasa basin, an interjurisdictional endorreic basin of 5282 km2 located in the “Central Pampa” in Argentina, has suffered repeated flooding caused by an increasing water level of La Picasa lagoon, affecting livelihoods, infrastructure, transportation and agriculture. Although water infrastructure has been built to regulate water excesses, it has not been effective in reducing the flood risk. To improve the knowledge of the hydrological system, the master’s thesis aimed to develop a water balance model of La Picasa lagoon at a monthly time step between the hydrological years 2007/2008 and 2016/2017. Specifically, the objectives were to identify and quantify the most important components and processes determining its water level, area and volume and to propose hypothetical simulation scenarios based on different pumping operation schemes. The description of the conceptual model and implementation of a sensitivity analysis allowed to identify the inflow and outflow components of the water balance and quantify their relative contributions, namely precipitation, water discharge from channels, surface runoff from surrounding sub-basins of the lagoon, evaporation and pumping. The performance tests applied to the model during the calibration and validation showed a very good performance. Additionally, two simulation scenarios were proposed, namely potential pumping and adjusted pumping, which reflected different trajectories of the water balance. The master’s thesis concluded that precipitation and evaporation were the most determinant inflow and outflow components in the water balance of La Picasa lagoon respectively. However, the flooding event in 2016/2017 was caused by a simultaneous reduction of net evaporation and an increase in water discharge, surface runoff and intermittent pumping. The simulation scenarios suggested that an optimal operation of the pumping stations could have been effective to increase the storage capacity of the lagoon. However, during longer humid periods, it might not be enough to outweigh additional inflows.},
  language  = {en}
}