LOÍZA RESERVOIR CASE STUDY 20.15
The source of these discrepancies is probably related to measurement problems in 1987,
which contributed most of the computed sediment inflow during two sparsely sampled
storm events. The bathymetric and fluvial estimates of trapped sediment agree rather
closely if the 1987 fluvial data are discarded. This illustrates the potential difficulty in
measuring sediment yield in flashy streams.
20.3.5 Trends in Sediment Yield
Reforestation and erosion control have long been proposed for sediment management in
Puerto Rico. At the time of Spanish occupation in 1508, the entire island was forested,
but by 1828 forest cover had been reduced to about 66 percent of the island's area
(Wadsworth, 1950). Forest inventories summarized by Birdsey and Weaver (1987) show
that the total forested area in Puerto Rico had declined to a low of 12 percent of the
island's area in the late 1940s, with about half of this area being shade coffee plantings.
This dramatic denudation of forest area reflected the extensive cultivation of steep
erodible hillsides either by hand or by oxen, a practice that was commonplace into the
1960s. Erosion from steep hillside farms has been a major source of erosion contributing
to reservoir sedimentation (Noll, 1953). Improving economic conditions since the 1950s
led to the gradual abandonment of hillside farming and reforestation of the slopes. By
1984, forest cover of all types, including areas of shade coffee production, covered 34
percent of the island. Most of the increase in forest cover occurred in the island's steep
interior area, where most hillside farms have been abandoned and are in secondary forest
or pasture. During this same period, urban development has focused primarily on the
coastal plain, largely bypassing the watersheds tributary to reservoirs, with the notable
exception of the Loíza watershed, which had a 1990 population density exceeding 500
persons/km
2
.
Given the small steep watersheds, gravel bed rivers, predominance of easily
transported fine-grained sediment, and the limited opportunity for and evidence of
sediment deposition on the narrow valley floors above most reservoirs, the sediment
delivery ratio is expected to be very high. Under these conditions a significant decline in
erosion due to the abandonment of hillside farms and dramatic increase in forest cover
would be expected to produce a noticeable, if not dramatic, decline in the rate of reservoir
storage loss, except possibly in watersheds affected by extensive sediment-producing
construction activity.
The longest continuous fluvial sediment record in Puerto Rico (1968 to present)
monitors discharge and load from the 47.7-km
2
Rio Tanama watershed on the north
coast. No trends are evident in this dataset based on construction of a double mass curve
of water and sediment. Longer-term trends in sediment yield may be analyzed using
reservoir resurvey data. Repeated bathymetric survey data are available at only a few
sites in Puerto Rico. Data from Loíza and Dos Bocas reservoirs, both on the island's north
coast and with similar watershed sizes, reflect contrasting trends in sedimentation (Fig.
20.13). The Dos Bocas watershed has experienced extensive reforestation and relatively
little urban development, yet there has been no apparent decline in the rate of sediment
accumulation. In contrast, the Loíza basin has experienced considerable urban expansion,
including both housing and highway development on sloping soils with virtually no
erosion control practices. (See Figs. 12.4 and 12.13.) Nevertheless, the Loíza data show
an apparent decline in sediment yield as a function of time: the rate of reservoir storage
depletion averaged 0.418 Mm
3
/yr from 1953 to 1971, but only 0.175 Mm
3
/yr from 1971
to 1994. It is not clear to what extent this reflects differences in hydrology; there has not
been a major flood in the Loíza basin since October 1970, whereas Dos Bocas
experienced a large flood in 1985.