Determination of Environmental Flows for the Barbuda Stream in the Municipality of Olaya, Antioquia, Colombia

Environmental flow determination is important for the management of rivers and reservoirs. This parameter allows us to calculate the water supply of basins and minimize environmental impacts associated with water harvesting. In the past, research has been performed to determine environmental flows in rivers of Antioquia. However, the results did not include annual weather variation. Mean environmental flows, evapotranspiration and infiltration in the area have been calculated with the rainfall data registered in the Olaya station during 20 years and the basin morphometric parameters. The collected data were used to build a mathematical model in MATLAB and determine the environmental flows with the Range of Variability Approach (RVA) method.  The model can be used to determine environmental flows in similar basins using new rainfall data and morphometric parameters.