Modelación hidrológica de la cuenca urbana del río Bélico en la ciudad de Santa Clara, Cuba

Abstract

Las inundaciones urbanas son un fenómeno asociado a grandes precipitaciones en relativamente cortos períodos de tiempo, las causas que las provocan son disímiles y generalmente vienen acompañadas por una deficiente planificación urbana. La ciudad de Santa Clara, Cuba, presenta graves problemas de inundaciones cercanos a los ríos Bélico y Cubanicay debido a la disminución de la sección de sus cauces por indisciplinas urbanísticas. La presente contribución obtiene los valores del caudal máximo de escurrimiento para varias secciones de control ubicadas a lo largo de dichos ríos, usando para ello el modelo TR-55 (Technical Report 55) del Servicio de Conservación de los Recursos Naturales de Estados Unidos. Se realizan tres modelaciones asociadas a lluvias convectivas Tipo I, II, III, agrupadas a los picos de las tormentas y su ubicación temporal, con lo cual se pueden definir los gastos máximos relacionados con tormentas de configuración diferentes para una probabilidad del 1%, 2% y 10%. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que la situación más crítica ocurre para la lluvia Tipo III y el valor máximo de escurrimiento para una probabilidad del 1% en el punto de cierre de la cuenca es de 170 m3/s.

Simulating the Flood Limits of Urban Rivers Embedded in the Populated City of Santa Clara, Cuba

“…The geographic location of Santa Clara is found between a latitude of 22.24 • N, longitude of 79.57 • W, and altitude of 100 m.a.s.l. (Figure 1c), with a population of 200,000 inhabitants and a high level of urbanization, especially in the historic center and between the Bélico and Cubanicay rivers [13]. These rivers are embedded in a flat basin (see Figure 1c) that belong to the Sagua la Grande river basin, which originates near the southern ring road and crosses the urban center of Santa Clara from south to north.…”

“…The storm drainage system of the city is vulnerable and may collapse even without extreme events such as tropical storms or hurricanes. A normal rainfall event during summer may cause flooding in vulnerable areas from the excessive accumulation of water due to the inability of the natural and artificial network system to evacuate runoff [13]. Poor urban planning has led to a significant reduction in the main tributaries and riverbed along with housing and business development in flooding areas.…”

“…Water 2023, 15, x FOR PEER REVIEW 4 of 19 cause flooding in vulnerable areas from the excessive accumulation of water due to the inability of the natural and artificial network system to evacuate runoff [13]. Poor urban planning has led to a significant reduction in the main tributaries and riverbed along with housing and business development in flooding areas.…”

“…The 1D model represents the terrain as a sequence of cross sections and simulates flow to estimate the average velocity and water depth at each cross section. The selected hydrological model is reported in [38]; more detail and local hydrological data for Santa Clara city were reported in [36,37]. The Beta model included two important aspects for the simulation: (i) the existing frontage lines due to nearby construction along the channel, which caused flow choking; and (ii) the presence of structures such as bridges across the channel.…”

“…gob.cu, accessed on 25 January 2022) is responsible for directing, executing, and controlling policies regarding the activities of hydraulic resources in Cuba, which includes demanding compliance with adequate measures to prevent and mitigate the effects of extreme hydrometeorological events [12]. Populated areas located in flat areas or without effective storm drainage systems are highly susceptible to flooding during extreme rainfall events [13]. The authors of [14] suggested that factors such as climate change and inadequate infrastructure increase the losses associated with these disasters.…”