Fieldwork Enhances Hydrological Research in the Trancura River Basin

Between October 18 and 19, the team from the Kimün-Ko Water Resources Observatory of La Araucanía conducted a fieldwork campaign in the Trancura River Basin, specifically in the Llafenco area, a strategic site for hydrological monitoring in Chile. This activity, part of the Fondecyt Regular 1212071 project, aimed to review the status of meteorological and soil moisture stations previously installed in the area and to download data essential for improving the understanding of the basin’s hydrological behavior.

The activity was led by Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini, an academic from the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of La Frontera, and included participation from MSc Rodrigo Marinao, along with Civil Engineering students Rocío Muñoz and Héctor Garcés-Figueroa.

During the campaign, the team visited four meteorological stations: Viento Helado, Pangui, Palguín Alto, and Laguna Hualalafquén, as well as four soil moisture stations located at Viento Helado, Puam Ecolodge, Palguín Alto, and Laguna Hualalafquén. Unfortunately, at the Laguna Hualalafquén station, the equipment had been vandalized, necessitating its removal for repair during a future visit.

These monitoring systems are crucial for collecting data to understand the interactions between various hydrometeorological variables and to analyze their effects on extreme events occurring in critical basins across the country.

Figure 1. Monitoring Stations.