The use of water resources in a basin is based on the availability of surface runoff, which is affected by both climatic factors and physiographic characteristics, among other aspects. The objective of the research was to evaluate the performance of the semi-distributed hydrological models Hydrologiska Byrans Vattenbalansavdelning (HBV) and Sacramento Soil Moisture Accounting (SAC) for the Huancane River basin using the hydrological and hydraulic modeling platform RS MINERVE. The Huancane watershed was delimited and divided into 09 contribution zones from the gauging station. For the hydrological modeling, hydro-meteorological information was used in daily time steps from January 1991 to December 2015. The calibration phase was carried out from January 1991 to December 2010 and the validation phase from January 2011 to December 2015. An efficiency measure was used to evaluate the simulated series against the observed daily flow rates, such as the Nash-Sutcliffe ratio, the logarithmic Nash coefficient (Nash-ln), the Pearson correlation coefficient, and the relative root mean square error (RRMSE). The results obtained in the study show that the HBV and SAC-SMA models describe the sequence of observations with high accuracy, being more representative in the dry season; both models have some incompatibilities regarding the rainy season, failing to properly represent the extreme values, which is attributed to the climatic parameters involved. Likewise, we can highlight that the model with the largest number of SAC-SMA parameters has a better performance than the HBV model, both in the calibration and validation stages.

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Disaster risk management involves reducing disaster damage to homes, critical infrastructure and the interruption of basic services and developing their resilience. This work analyzes the perception of geohydrological risk by the population living or working in the town of Cuyocuyo (southern Peru), which was affected in previous years by events of landslides, debris flow and floods. In order to analyze the effect of the social perception of geohydrological risk on disaster preparedness in areas under threat from landslides and debris flow, a survey was applied to 65 adult heads of household. The method for estimating results was logit regression. The results show the following: First, the preparation through the acquisition of items necessary to avoid the impact of the disaster is related to indicators of perception of disaster risk and the age of the population. Second, the knowledge and prevention of disaster mitigation significantly depends on indicators of dependency of the place and the affection of the place. Third, the participation of households in trainings and drills to prevent disasters organized by the government depends significantly on the indicators of the perception of probability of the disaster, threat of disaster risk and the identity of the place and Fourth, the modification and reinforcement of the buildings of the settlers depends positively on the dependence of the place.

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A better understanding of intra/inter-annual streamflow variability and trends enables more effective water resources planning and management for current and future needs. This paper investigates the variability and trends of streamflow data from five stations (i.e. Ashti, Chindnar, Pathgudem, Polavaram, and Tekra) in Godavari river basin, India. The streamflow data were obtained from the Indian Central Water Commission and cover more than 30 years of mean daily records (i.e. 1972–2011). The streamflow data were statistically assessed using Gamma, Generalised Extreme Value and Normal distributions to understand the probability distribution features of data at inter-annual time-scale. Quantifiable changes in observed streamflow data were identified by Sen’s slope method. Two other nonparametric, Mann–Kendall and Innovative Trend Analysis methods were also applied to validate findings from Sen’s slope trend analysis. The mean flow discharge for each month (i.e. January to December), seasonal variation (i.e. Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter) as well as an annual mean, annual maximum and minimum flows were analysed for each station. The results show that three stations (i.e. Ashti, Tekra, and Polavaram) demonstrate an increasing trend, notably during Winter and Spring. In contrast, two other stations (i.e. Pathgudem, Chindnar) revealed a decreasing trend almost at all seasons. A significant decreasing trend was observed at all station over Summer and Autumn seasons. Notably, all stations showed a decreasing trend in maximum flows; remarkably, Tekra station revealed the highest decreasing magnitude. Significant decrease in minimum flows was observed in two stations only, Chindnar and Pathgudem. Findings resulted from this study might be useful for water managers and decision-makers to propose more sustainable water management recommendations and practices.

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Extreme rainfall events and consequently Floodings are phenomena in Peru with severe economic, social and environmental consequences when it occurs in several regions during summer or during El Nino (ENSO) phenomenon. Therefore, in several basins located in northwestern Peru, floods are a constant risk to people in urban, industrial or agricultural areas along rivers and floodplains. Extreme flood events in Piura River basin in recent decades, had huge economic and human impacts, added to an increase in population concentrations in critical flood risk zones, urban and rural environment. In addition to this serious context, enhanced climate variability changes are expected to increase the frequency and intensity of floods in Peruvian Basins. This research aims to assess flood susceptibility through the application of an Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), using several flood conditioning factors related with basin morphology; terrain morphology; permeability; hydrography and rainfall. provided from PISCO-SENAMHI gridded datasets (5km-5km) available in daily and monthly scales. All variables from remote sensing, field and geospatial processing were classified with scientific and pragmatic criteria as raster datasets at basin level with a resolution of 5m × 5m m cell size using different satellite terrain information. The resultant map shows critical areas with different susceptibility of flood, and these regions are requiring some serious attention of governmental or non-governmental offices to reduce the flood risk. The AHP process method proposed in this research can be easily applied to other basins around peruvian slope and coast for different ways of flood hazard management and prevention plans.

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The Latin America and Caribbean region is water-abundant. It boasts some of the world’s largest rivers, lakes and aquifers, which yield more water per person than any other region in the planet. However, water is irregularly distributed in time and space due to climatic variability. While heavy rainfall takes place across the year in the Amazon rainforests, it barely ever rains in the Atacama Desert. Besides, the majority of the population is concentrated in cities. This generates strong asymmetries between water demands and water availability. Largely as a result, many freshwater ecosystems are endangered by a wide array of different pressures. Adaptation to climate change, universal access to water and sanitation services, pollution control and an integrated approach to transboundary water resources management are the main challenges ahead.

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Water governance can be defined as a system that makes water management more effective, accountable and participatory, thus strengthening the role of multiple stakeholders in institutional capacity bUilding, improving coordination, broadening participation and consolidating partnerships Uacobi, 2009). Water governance structures in some LAC have undergone reforms that implied not only re-orientation of policy priorities and approaches, but also the restructuring of institutional frameworks. This has led to the need for new intermediate institutions that enable a negotiated approach to water governance. Two issues hamper the capacity of institutions to improve and adjust to constantly changing conditions: the lack of proper evaluation of the quality of policies - often a consequence of lack of transparency and accountability that may favour some actors and their private interests over others; and the lack of adequate control over bureaucratic systems. Institutional reforms involved changes in the ‘rules of the game’, expressed by the coexistence of formal laws, informal norms and practices, and organizational structures, as well as strengthening institutional capacity.@en

This chapter describes the current water resources situation in Peru, recent efforts to promote governance in water resources management and challenges the country faces in this area. The physical territory and the variability of water availability are described and water uses are discussed. Special emphasis is given to the extremely low water availability in some areas of the Pacific Basin, where population is the highest and surface water availability the lowest. Examples of the impact of economic growth on consumption habits are given. Use of water in different economic activities is described. Progress in the water footprint estimation of selected agricultural products is also presented. Agriculture is being studied in detail as it consumes 80% of the water resources of the nation and a few examples of 'cash per drop' are given. Groundwater resources are especially important in the Pacific Basin from the economic viewpoint and two representative cases are included. The change of the energy matrix is also affecting water uses, as ethanol (made of sugar cane) is incorporated into gasoline by law. Environmental and social issues are pointed out, and the degradation of large areas of land and the pollution of water resources at a large scale is discussed. It is concluded that a number of factors such as population growth, economic growth, change in the energy matrix, the lack of regulation enforcement, and a lack of planning have led to an increasing pressure on land and water resources. In some cases, damage to the environment and water resources might be irreversible. The background history and concepts under which the National Water Authority was created and the roles assigned to this institution are briefly described and discussed. This entity has an enormous challenge in securing one of the nation's most valuable resources: Water.@en