Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

La REVISTA GEOGRÁFICA DE AMÉRICA CENTRAL es una publicación de la Escuela de Ciencias Geográficas de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Tierra y el Mar de la Universidad Nacional, Costa Rica, publicada periódicamente por la Editorial de la Universidad Nacional (EUNA) desde 1974. La revista está destinada para difundir la Ciencia Geográfica y afines en todos los ámbitos, mediante la publicación de trabajos originales, informes inéditos, o adelantos de investigación que tengan especial relación con América Central, abordando temáticas propias de la Geografía: estudios regionales, problemáticas urbano/rural, ordenamiento territorial, recursos naturales y su relación con el medio geográfico, manejo de cuencas hidrográficas, ciencias de la información geográfica, análisis demográfico, temas relacionados con epistemología y la enseñanza de esta disciplina. Además, constituye un foro de expresión de la opinión profesional y de la discusión académica, y como tal, en él tienen cabida todos los aportes científicos que alcancen esta finalidad. Esta oportunidad, corresponde a la publicación No.64 de la Revista Geográfica de América Central del I semestre de 2020 (enero-junio). Incluye 10 artículos ubicados en las diferentes secciones de la revista: teoría, epistemología y metodología, estudios de caso y notas, y documentos. Disponible en versión impresa y digital, esta última se puede encontrar en el siguiente link http://www.revistas.una.ac.cr/index.php/geografica.

The Brazilian semi-arid region encompasses 1,133 municipalities, occupying an area of 982,563.3 km² and a population of approximately 47 million inhabitants. Water scarcity in the Brazilian semi-arid and mainly in the northeast region is a problem residents face year after year. This region is characterized by having: almost eight months of rainfall absence; periodic droughts; frequent flooding of intermittent rivers and sandy, shallow, saline soils deficient in essential nutrients for the development of plants. Rain still represents the only reconstituent water source that feedsback river courses and recharges aquifers of the Northeast region. The study of rainfall series is fundamental for the management of water resources, development of projects of coexistence in the semi-arid regions and improvements for the development of agriculture and livestock, besides encouraging the region’s water sustainability. The objective of this study was to analyze rainfall behavior occurring in the last 31 years (1987-2017) in the Metropolitan Region of Cariri (MRC), Brazil, in view of identifying the characteristics of the regional rainfall regime. Along with the Cearense Foundation of Meteorology and Water Resources (FUNCEME), a monthly pluviometric data registry of the municipality was created based on historical data series. Parameter calculations were performed, such as: average, maximum, minimum and standard deviation. In this way, it was possible to verify that the municipalities that presented the highest rainfall indexes were Caririaçu, which registered 1632.0 mm in 2008 and Santana do Cariri with 1612.1 mm in 1996. It is worth noting that between 2016 and 2017 the annual rainfall received in most MRC municipalities was well below the average of the analyzed series.

Currently, methodologies for evaluating agricultural production do not allow precision tracking or monitoring of the production. The state Merida in Venezuela contributes to the country with more than 515,000 MT in agricultural goods. Lack of the above mentioned methodologies hinder the truthful capture of agricultural production data; alternative technologies are being used to overcome such deficiency. Panelera cane (Saccharum officinarum sp) has been monitored through Sentinel 2A satellite images captured from 27/03/2016 to 01/04/2017; and processed with QGIS-2.18 software. Agrarian records were used to establish training and verification areas of the supervised classification 379 hectares (ha) of crop were identified by 27/03/2016; and 361 ha by 01/04/2017. The present evaluation identified 51.6% (129 ha) of additional area as that reported by the official institutions of Mérida for the year 2016; production is estimated to exceed by more than 50% in 2017 because institutions has not consolidated the information.

Design and analysis methodologies for aqueduct and sewerage systems have been changing with the emergence of new tools and technologies that, in addition to simplifying these processes, are increasingly reliable and precise. The direct application of these new technologies has greatly improved the way in which drinking water and sanitation projects are planned, designed and built in the country. Hydraulic modeling of networks is a methodology that has been applied for several years, both for the analysis and design of drinking water networks and sewage networks. The most recent versions of hydraulic modeling software have the enormous advantage of being compatible with Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The present investigation shows a theoretical and methodological procedure used to simplify hydraulic modeling through the capture and systematization of data in a GIS, as well as a series of results obtained from specific cases in network systems throughout the province of Guanacaste in Costa Rica.

In the last two decades, the Central Pacific coast of Costa Rica experienced a strong growth in urban and touristic development. If not regulated, this development can result in a pressure to groundwater resources and, therefore, a threat in terms of quality and quantity. In this study, a hydrogeological vulnerability map of Jacó aquifers was performed, by the GOD method. Geological profiles were elaborated, and field verification was performed. It is confirmed that, in the study area, two aquifers are found: a) a detritic, porous, unconfined coastal aquifer, settled in the Jacó alluvial plain and, b) an aquifer in the basaltic fractured rocks of the Nicoya Complex, unconfined in the mountainous zone and underlying the detritic formation in the central area, where the groundwater is integrated to that of the detrital aquifer. The zone of the alluvial aquifer resulted in a medium vulnerability index, whereas the mountainous areas in a low vulnerability. Management recommendations were proposed.

In the last two decades, the Central Pacific of Costa Rica experienced a strong growth in urban and tourism development. If not regulated, this development can result in a pressure to groundwater resources and, therefore, a threat in terms of quality and quantity. In this study, a hydrogeological vulnerability map of Jacó aquifers was performed, by the GOD method. Geological profiles were elaborated, and field verification was performed. It is confirmed that, in the study area, two aquifers are found: a) a detritic, porous, unconfined coastal aquifer, settled in the Jacó alluvial plain and, b) an aquifer in the basaltic fractured rocks of the Nicoya Complex, unconfined in the mountainous zone and underlying the detritic formation in the central area, where the groundwater is integrated to that of the detrital aquifer. The zone of the alluvial aquifer resulted in a medium vulnerability index, whereas the mountainous areas in a low vulnerability. Management recommendations were proposed.

Coto Brus is a canton in southeast Costa Rica, serving as a melting pot of indigenous, Costa Rican, Panamanian and Italian cultures that shaped their territory during the last seventy years. The objective of this paper is to analyze the environmental impact of the agricultural colonization of Coto Brus and the resulting changes in the territory’s landscape experienced since 1940. This study exposes the other side of the explosive development that took place in Coto Brus during its first decades of existence as a canton and also highlights how multicultural patterns deprived the growth of the agricultural frontier in one of the least studied regions of the country. The methodology is based on literature review of different bibliographical sources such as books, articles, historical accounts and legislation. By means of a historical geographical analysis, three historical periods were determined which synthesize the environment impacts brought by productive activities for more than seven decades.

Changes in land use and vegetation sustained by planet earth are evermore so relevant in understanding the elements of friction between agricultural communities and terrestrial ecosystems that sustain them.  The objective of this study was to analyze changes in land use and vegetation in the indigenous community of Kashaama, Anzoátegui State, Venezuela. Digital images derived from a moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used that contain information on the different land use and vegetation coverage for the years 2001 through 2013.  The studied indigenous community presents a significant transformation process from vegetation coverage to anthropic land use, putting at risk the ecosystem’s goods and services for the population.

The theoretical-methodological conception used in this article is based on geoecology, a discipline that uses the systemic conception in the study of landscapes, conceived as well as a self-regulated, complex and open system, insofar as it experiences the anthropogenic impact. The objective of this work is to analyze the different landscape units of the Buenavista Biosphere Reserve, in order to establish their status regarding stability, sensitivity and the degree of anthropization. As a principal step, the landscape units present in the study area were inventoried and mapped. Later, different degrees of natural and technogenic stability are established, whose joint analysis allowed to determine the levels of sensitivity or fragility of landscapes. Finally, the naturalness scales of the different landscape units are identified, using the indices of naturalness and synanthropism.

Mexico is an active seismotectonic region mainly sitting on the continental plate of North America and has two types of seismicity: interplate and interior plate.  The hierarchical structure embraces 3 seismotectonic provinces (north-western, western and central-eastern), comprised of 11 seismotectonic units wherein seismogenetic zones are located. The latter are segmented. The western province shows the highest level of seismicity and is the area where convergent plates make contact.