Assessing mountain soil water storage and release in a Colombian Páramo with APSIS-InSAR data
OA Location
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Direct observation of montane and upland water resources provides valuable data in support of national scale water management and policy, but direct observation is challenging on large spatial scales. To address the need for large spatial scale hydrological data we use InSAR surface motion signals, indicative of surface swelling due to increased soil water content, at approximately 90 m resolution over a tropical Colombian mountain range covered with Páramo, a biome widespread along the Northern Andes. Considering uncertainty of vegetation and mountainous terrain on the InSAR signal, we observe a regional, spatially consistent sequence of soil surface motion, which can be related to storage and movement of water through montane catchments. Swelling on the ridges and upper slopes occurs during the wet season and is consistent with infiltration and increased saturation of ridge and upper slope soils. This is followed by a marked swelling of the valley floors towards the end of the wet season and into the dry season. The InSAR signal also captures movement of water through the basin with swelling subsiding sequentially downslope and downstream. The results indicate that a shallow hillslope flow dominates during the wet season, but this alone is insufficient to explain shallow ground water storage in superficial valley deposits lasting into the late wet season and dry season. We conclude that InSAR signals can provide a qualitative insight in the storage and release mechanisms at a basin scale, thus complementing sparse point-scale measurements.
Date Issued
2025-07-24
Date Acceptance
2025-07-09
Citation
Hydrological Processes, 2025, 39 (7)
ISSN
0885-6087
Publisher
Wiley
Journal / Book Title
Hydrological Processes
Volume
39
Issue
7
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Hydrological Processes published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
License URL
Identifier
10.1002/hyp.70214
Subjects
bofedal
BOFEDALES
catchment storage
CORDILLERA
flow paths
GROUNDWATER
ISBAS
LAND SUBSIDENCE
Physical Sciences
satellite radar
Science & Technology
tropical Andes
Water Resources
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
e70214
Date Publish Online
2025-07-24