versión On-line ISSN 1850-468X
The main objective of the present work is the quantitative estimation of the discharge contributed by the daily rainfall to the Uruguay River discharge and the determination of the lag of the flood wave of the precipitation in each region. Due to its characteristics, the upper region of the basin of the Uruguay River comprised between 26ºS- 2ºS and 48.5ºW-60.5ºW was selected for this study where the domain was divided in three different sub-basins: upper, central and lower. The period considered for the present analysis was 1970-2001. A triangulation of Delaunay as a variant of the method of Thiessen Polygons was used in the calculation of the areal rainfall. Then, the flood wave for each sub-basin was calculated based on selected storms. Results show that an intense precipitation event in the upper or central sub-basins has an 8-days lag before its detection in the Paso de los Libres discharge and a 10- days lag in the case of Salto Grande discharge. Likewise, an intense rainfall over the lower sub-basin has a 2-days lag before being noticed in the Salto Grande discharge.
Palabras clave : Uruguay River; Discharge; Flood wave; Lag; Areal rainfall.