Adolfo Quesada-Román

University of Costa Rica | UCR · Escuela de Geografía

Tropical and subtropical forests cover only 7 % of the Earth's land surface. Yet, they host nearly half of global tree density with a high species number (~40,000 species), store up to 25 % of global terrestrial carbon and represent one-third of net primary productivity on Earth. Over the last four decades, the study of tree growth in the tropics h...

The COVID-19 pandemic has had far-reaching impacts on every aspect of human life since the first confirmed case in December 2019. Costa Rica reported its first case of COVID-19 in March 2020, coinciding with a notable correlation between the occurrence of disaster events at the municipal scale over the past five decades. In Costa Rica, over 90% of...

This study conducts a bibliometric analysis of 735 research papers on geomorphological mapping published in English between 2000 and 2021 using the Web of Science database. The analysis focuses on key metrics such as annual publication rates, journal distribution, common keywords, and frequently cited papers. The results demonstrate sustained inves...

Developing countries usually lack environmental baseline information for territorial decision-making. Geomorphological maps constitute valuable tools for natural resource management due to the landforms permanence and dynamics creating interactions between biotic, abiotic, and anthropic unique characteristics worldwide. In this paper, we present an...

This review paper examined the global landscape of research on continental flood early warning systems (EWS), shedding light on key trends, geographic disparities, and research priorities. Continental floods stand as one of the most pervasive and devastating disasters worldwide, necessitating proactive measures to mitigate their impact. Drawing upo...

Mangroves of the Tropical East Pacific (TEP) province is a regional ecosystem subgroup (Level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology), present in the coastal ecoregions of the Mexican Tropical Pacific, Chiapas-Nicaragua, Nicoya, Panama Bight, and Guayaquil. In 2020, mangroves cover 7782 km2 in the province, representing 5.3% of the global cov...

Soil erosion is a geomorphic process that can cause hazards and socio-economic losses. These processes occur through subsurface and overland flows. We conducted a literature review on the importance of DEM resolution in soil erosion assessment. This review paper presents the state of the art regarding the importance of the resolution of DEM in soil...

The decay of rivers and river water pollution are common problems worldwide. However, many works have been performed on decaying rivers in India, and the status of the water quality is still unknown in Jalangi River. To this end, the present study intends to examine the water quality of the Jalangi River to assess ecological status in both the spat...

In Honduras, a country located in Central America, the prevalence of hydrometeorological disasters due to its geographical location poses a challenge in the context of climate change. However, the lack of local disaster data highlights the need to investigate the primary natural hazards impacting Honduran municipalities. In this regard, the disaste...

Mangroves of the Tropical Northwestern Atlantic is a regional ecosystem subgroup (level 4 unit of the IUCN Global Ecosystem Typology). It includes the marine ecoregions of Bahamian, Carolinian, Eastern Caribbean, Floridian, Greater Antilles, Northern Gulf of Mexico, Southern Caribbean, Southern Gulf of Mexico, Southwestern Caribbean and Western Car...

Tropical cyclones have provoked intense devastation over the last decades, and societal drivers such as unplanned urbanization and the lack of flood risk assessment have worsened the problem. Landslides and floods constitute a frequent hazard linked to tropical cyclones. This is not the exception in Costa Rica, where hydrometeorological disasters s...

Panama is located in the southernmost portion of Central America, and due to its isthmic location, it is primarily affected by hydrometeorological disasters. Given the limited local-level disaster information available in the country, there is a need to create a review of the natural hazards that most affect its municipalities. Therefore, the DesIn...

Flood risk assessment is crucial for delineating flood hazard zones and formulating effective mitigation strategies. Employing a multi-criteria decision support system, this study focused on assessing a Flood Risk Index (FHI) at the Dades Wadi watershed scale. Seven main floodcausing criteria were broadly selected, namely flow accumulation, distanc...

Estimates from 3 statistically downscaled General Circulation Models (GCMs) from version 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project, namely the EC Earth3, GFDL ESM4 and MPI ESM1 2 HR are used in the HBV hydrological model to estimate design streamflow projections with 20, 50, and 100-year return periods for the selected main basins of Costa Ric...

Landslides constitute recurrent natural hazards worldwide with greater socioeconomic impacts in low-income places. Landslide susceptibility studies are carried out to determine the potential for landslides to occur in a region, to predict possible risks in the future and to integrate this information into sustainable planning and management strateg...

Due to a specialised methodology, palaeoecology is often regarded as a separate field from ecology even though it is essential to understand long-term ecological processes that have shaped ecosystems that ecologists study and manage. Even though advances in ecological modelling, sample dating, and proxy-based reconstructions have enabled direct com...

Tropical coastal karst areas represent dynamic, fragile, and biodiverse environments. Central America's karst regions have been scarcely studied, with most of the research focused on the northern part of the region and on several larger cave systems. The coastal carbonate zones of the Central American region represent a unique karstic landscape, wh...

En el sexto Informe (AR6) del Panel Intergubernamental para Cambio Climático (IPCC), se reporta la poca participación y datos de la región Centroamericana. Es por ello, que se ha unido a un grupo personas investigadoras expertas y jóvenes, así como de diversos grupos sociales como mujeres y personas originarias, para nutrir con datos científicos y...

Digital elevation models (DEMs) are used for many geosciences studies; hence, their accuracy is essential. Throughout the world, there are many small islands of various sizes and densities; hence, it is important to assess the DEM accuracy on very small islands since DEMs serve as the major data source for many investigations, particularly in geomo...

Construction—of homes, business spaces, infrastructure—is the symbol of development. However, the construction sector often lacks environmental sustainability and is responsible for considerable material and greenhouse gas footprints along the value chain. A sustainable transformation is urgently needed, requiring action and coordination across sta...

During the Anthropocene, human modifications to fluvial landscapes have become a common aspect of their progress and development. The primary objective of this research is to delve into the human-induced alterations on fluvial landscapes at both the channel and basin scales. For channel scale investigation, we classify the channel cross-sections in...

Increasing extreme weather and climate events have led to recurrent disasters that cause significant harm to human populations. The aim of this present study is to complement Costa Rica’s National Meteorological Institute 2017 risk assessment methodology for extreme weather and climate events. This methodology uses different socio-spatial indicator...

Climatic and anthropogenic changes cause the deprivation of distinct ecosystems in Costa Rica, transforming climatic, ecological, and geomorphic conditions. The high tropical biodiversity of Costa Rica and the tropics is suitable to improve the understanding of hydrogeomorphic process dynamics and to produce baseline data on past disasters in scarc...

El Hierro Island Global Geopark: Diversity of Volcanic Heritage for Geotourism allows readers a structured approach starting from the geological origin of the island, up to the implementation of the UNESCO Global Geopark category. In its initial chapters, the book takes the reader on a journey through the terminology of geopatrimony, geodiversity,...

This study aims to provide a systematic analysis of the literature of methods and resources supporting geoconservation and geotourism worldwide, while identifying current and future trends in the field. This paper offers a comprehensive bibliometric analysis which comprises the period of 2011-2021 after an in-depth systematic literature review of 1...

Previous attempts to quantify tree abundance at global scale have largely neglected the role of local competition in modulating the influence of climate and soils on tree density. Here, we evaluated whether mean tree size in the world’s natural forests alters the effect of global productivity on tree density. In doing so, we gathered a vast set of...

The Guacimal River catchment has an area of 181 km 2 and is located in the NW of Costa Rica, between the coordinates 84.745° W-10.016° N and 84.909° W-10.325° N. In this territory, as in most of the country, detailed geomorpholog-ical studies are scarce; therefore, the objective of this paper is to present the geomorphological mapping at a scale of...

Este trabajo consiste en una reconstrucción histórica y geoespacial, mediante Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), de un sector de la ruta alternativa del ferrocarril al Atlántico de Costa Ricadenominada: “línea de Fajardo”, construida entre los años 1871-1873 y posteriormente abandona-da. Esta fue impulsada por el gobierno de Tomás Guardia Gu...

The present work investigates the hydrochemical properties of the surface and groundwater of the Mayurakshi River Basin (India) for assessing their irrigation suitability with respect to irrigation hazards. The study involves 72 water samples classified as 48 surface water samples (premonsoon: 24; post-monsoon: 24) and 24 groundwater samples (pre-m...

Data generated using the described equations on the "Costa Rican Wetlands Vulnerability Index" paper (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364733505_Costa_Rican_wetlands_vulnerability_index). The raw data used for those calculations are on the "Fact_Infl" and "Con_Hum" layers, developed in the National Wetlands Inventory of Costa Rica, part o...

Wetlands shapefile used for the "Costa Rican Wetlands Vulnerability Index" paper (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/364733505_Costa_Rican_wetlands_vulnerability_index). Shapefile generated for the new National Wetlands Inventory of Costa Rica, part of the "Wetlands Project" developed by UNDP, with SINAC-MINAE as national counterpart and fin...

Lakes are generally considered a key information source for understanding paleoclimate. Here, we use stable water isotopes (δ²H and δ¹⁸O) in a high-elevation tropical glacial lake to inform about modern climate variability and local hydrological conditions. We report a data set of water isotopes in precipitation and lake water collected between Jun...

Costa Rica comprises approximately 6% of the world’s biodiversity. Among these lush ecosystems, wetlands are represented in mangrove forests near the sea, along river lowlands, sedimentary and volcanic mountains, and highland páramo landscapes. In 2018, the Ministry of Environment and Energy (MINAE), through the National System of Conservation Area...

High mountain areas are critical for water security and natural hazard dynamics, as well as glacier and ecosystem conservation in a warming world. We present a brief account of the methodological steps for geomorphological mapping in mountain areas, including the required scale, the legends, technology, and software. We analyze the best imagery sou...

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs or "drones") in geosciences is growing rapidly and is significantly contributing to the geomorphological analysis of diverse landforms and their dynamics in a variety of environments around the world. Specifically, UAVs in geomorphology have proved to be a robust and versatile tool due to their ability to a...

Tropical cyclones have repeatedly provoked intense devastation over the course of the last decades, and societal drivers such as unplanned urbanization and the lack of flood risk assessments have worse the problem further. Landslides and floods are frequent hazards linked to tropical cyclones. This is not the exception in Costa Rica, where more tha...

The inventory and evaluation of geosites throughout the world have been increasing. These approaches constitute the baseline for geoconservation and geotourism projects. In Costa Rica, initiatives presenting inventories of geomorphosites in volcanic and paleoglacial environments are recent. This work aims to present an inventory and evaluation of g...

The Torres River is one of the most urbanized catchments in Costa Rica, with only 46.67 km2 and approximately 50% of its area is covered by urban land uses, comprising nearly 13% of the national population. The quick rural-urban transition during the last century has had intense environmental impacts along the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of Cos...

More than a billion people live in informal settlements worldwide. Their high exposure and vulnerability increase the risk of disaster in their lives. Global changes challenge the capacity to seek practical and quick solutions for the most disadvantaged groups. Most people in Costa Rica reside in the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM, or Gran Área Met...

The Poás volcano is an active volcano of Costa Rica with intense tectonic activity in its flanks. Historically, the volcano has presented strong, surficial earthquakes provoking many landslides with associated casualties and immense economic impacts. One example is the Cinchona earthquake in 2009 (Mw 6.2 and 4.6 km depth). We aim to determine a lan...

During the last decade, climate change has generated extreme rainfall events triggering flash floods in short periods worldwide. The delimitation of flood zones by detailed mapping generally makes it possible to avoid human and economic losses, especially in regions at high risk of flooding. The Taguenit basin, located in southern Morocco, is a par...

Este trabajo consiste en una reconstrucción histórica y geoespacial, mediante Sistemas de Información Geográfica (SIG), de un sector de la ruta alternativa del ferrocarril al Atlántico de Costa Rica denominada: “línea de Fajardo”, construida entre los años 1871-1873 y posteriormente abandonada.Esta fue impulsada por el gobierno de Tomás Guardia Gut...

This work consists of a historical and geospatial reconstruction, using Geographic Information Systems (GIS), of a sector of the alternative route of the Costa Rican Atlantic railway called: "Fajardo line", built between 1871-1873 and later abandoned. It was promoted by the government of Tomás Guardia Gutiérrez and executed by the North American co...

Lakes are generally considered a key information source to understand paleoclimate. In this chapter, we use water stable isotopes (δ 2 H and δ 18 O) in a high-elevation tropical glacial lake to inform about modern climate variability and local hydrological conditions. We report on a data set of water isotopes in precipitation and lake water collect...

Statistically downscaled daily data from an ensemble of five General Circulation Models (GCMs) from the Climate Model Intercomparison Program 6 (CMIP6) will be used to determine changes (with respect to a baseline historical scenario) in the magnitude of the 20-year return period streamflow for 34 basins covering Costa Rica at horizons correspondin...

Smallholder livelihoods throughout Central America are built on rain-fed agriculture and depend on seasonal variations in temperature and precipitation. The effects of global change in this highly diverse region are not well understood due to sparse observations and complex interactions between the land and seas bounding the isthmus. We invite pres...

RESUMEN. Introducción: El Parque Nacional Chirripó ha tenido cambios climáticos definidos por su ubicación y por características geológicas, geomorfológicas, ecológicas y edáficas. Objetivo: Identificar los factores que han modulado el clima en las altas cimas de Costa Rica. Métodos: Una revisión bibliográfica en Google Académico en setiembre de 20...

Central America is affected by geological and hydrometeorological hazards that, together with its high exposure and vulnerability, comprise risky scenarios for disasters. This region presents a significant number of casualties and economic losses due to disasters every year. We present an analysis of the origin of extensive risks (high-frequency-lo...

High-altitude coffee has an international reputation due to its high quality, especially in countries with a long production history like Costa Rica. Specific geographical characteristics determine the regions where high-altitude coffee can be cultivated. Over the last two decades, new production conditions have promoted the growth of smallholder c...

Floods constitute one of the most damaging natural hazards in the world. Seasonal and extraordinary rainfall recurrently trigger different types of floods in Costa Rica. An integrated and efficient flood risk management requires comprehensive understanding on the flood driving variables. This study analyzes and classifies the 82 Costa Rican municip...

Tropical dry forests (TDF) are commonly affected by wildfires, especially during the dry season and drought periods. Many studies have identified ecological, pedological, and climatic variables that control fires ignition as well as other anthropogenic causes. Nonetheless, the intrinsic geomorphometric variables that shape the different TDF landsca...

The Poás volcano is an active volcano of Costa Rica with intense tectonic activity in its flanks. Historically, the volcano has presented strong, surficial earthquakes provoking a large number of landslides with associated casualties and immense economic impacts. One example is the Cinchona earthquake in 2009 (Mw 6.2 and 4.6 km depth). We aim to de...

Central America is located in a dynamic region where tectonics and volcanism together with the tropical climate and its diverse vegetation have shaped the landscapes. Our main objective is to review the status of the geodiversity, geoconservation, and geotourism in Central America. We will identify the region’s geomorphic environments and geodivers...

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), like many other regions in the world, are areas that are prone to hydrometeorological disasters, which threaten livelihoods and cause economic losses. To derive LAC’s status in the field of flood risk-related research, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the region’s publication record using the Web of Sci...

River floods frequently occur when tropical cyclones hit land. Nonetheless, systematic, long-term discharge data remain rather scarce in many tropical countries, which prevents proper analysis of peak discharges occurring during floods. The Térraba catchment is the biggest and most dynamic catchment in Costa Rica. In this study, we developed region...

The Torres River is one of the most urbanized catchments in Costa Rica, with only 46.67 km 2 and approximately 50% of its area have urban land uses comprising nearly 13% of the national population. The quick rural-urban transition during the last century has had intense environmental impacts along the Greater Metropolitan Area (GAM) of Costa Rica....

Landslides are generated by natural causes and by human action, causing various geomorphological changes as well as physical and socioeconomic loss of the environment and human life. The study, characterization and implementation of techniques are essential to reduce land vulnerability, different socioeconomic sector susceptibility and actions to g...

Costa Rica is known for its beauty, its biodiversity, its friendly citizens and peaceful nature. It is known as the land of “Pura Vida”, of monkeys and sloths, toucans and iguanas, coffee and chocolate, of peace-loving people and lush, beautiful tropical landscapes. This reputation, however, belies the violent geologic origins of the area. This are...

Térraba-Sierpe National Wetland (TSNW) is the largest wetland in Costa Rica located in the southeastern part of the country. The protected area comprises the Térraba-Sierpe delta covered with dense mangrove vegetation. We aim to analyze the geomorphological evolution of the coastal bars and the land use/cover change between 1948 and 2012 using aeri...

La dinámica tectónica y volcánica de Costa Rica responde principalmente a la interacción de las placas del Coco y Caribe. Con base en la relación entre las estructuras geológicas, rangos altitudinales, parámetros morfométricos y formas de relieve, se definieron diez unidades morfotectónicas-volcánicas (UMTV) que caracterizan el relieve resultante d...

The Limón earthquake was one of the biggest disasters ever recorded in Costa Rica and Panama. This event had a magnitude of 7.7 Mw, occurred on April 22 of 1991 and had its epicenter at the coordinates 9.685 N and -83.073 W. This study looks to determine the geomorphological effects resulting from the earthquake. The methodology consisted of a bibl...

Numerous high elevation tropical mountains around the world show evidence of past glacial activity during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Cerro Chirripó in Costa Rica exhibits paleoglacial landforms such as glacial cirques, moraine deposits and polished and striated bedrock surfaces. We used aerial imagery (1:25,000) and contour lines to develop a...

During the last decades, the number of floods and landslides events have been growing every year in Costa Rica, both in urban and rural areas. Despite of the geomorphological diversity of Central America and Costa Rica, there are few detailed geomorphological studies in the region. A 1:25,000 geomorphological analyses of the Upper General River Cat...

The Aneto, located on the Maladeta Massif (Central Pyrenees), is the largest glacier of the Pyrenees. The glacier is 675 m long, occupies an area of 48.64 ha and has a maximum altitude of 3269 m. In this study, we present a detailed area, volume, ice thickness, and Equilibrium Line Altitude reconstruction of the glacier for different periods (LIA,...

Landslides are a common natural hazard worldwide with greater socioeconomic impacts in developing and tropical countries. In Central America and Costa Rica, this phenomenon is mainly triggered by seismicity and extraordinary rainfall. In order to portray the damaging landslides, that caused human and material losses in Costa Rica, DesInventar disas...

The recent and growing development and availability of unmanned aerial vehicles/systems (UAV, UAS, or “drones”) in volcanology has promoted a significant advance in volcanic surveillance of active volcanoes and in the characterization of volcanic landforms and hazards. However, in the tropics with heavy rainfall, deep volcanic soils and high relief...

Climatic and anthropogenic changes are contributing to the degradation of different ecosystems in Costa Rica, thereby altering climatic, ecological, and geomorphic conditions. The hypothesis of this PhD thesis is that high tropical biodiversity of Costa Rica and the tropics is suitable to improve the understanding of hydrogeomorphic process dynamic...

More tree species can increase the carbon storage capacity of forests (here referred to as the more species hypothesis) through increased tree productivity and tree abundance resulting from complementarity, but they can also be the consequence of increased tree abundance through increased available energy (more individuals hypothesis). To test thes...

Volcanic geoheritage is an emerging field with limited assessments and particular methodological approaches worldwide. The scarcity of volcanic geomorphosite evaluation is higher in tropical countries, particularly developing ones such as Costa Rica and Cameroon. To contribute to reducing this gap in the literature, we evaluate and compare the geom...

Flash floods are one of the most damaging natural hazards in tropics. Seasonal and extraordinary rainfall recurrently trigger flash floods in Costa Rica. Hurricane Otto was the first reported hurricane to have ever passed through Costa Rica. The phenomenon resulted in losses amounting to 190 million US$, leaving four casualties and ca. 69 million U...

Tropical countries are subjected to natural disasters which cause substantial human and economic losses. Coping with disasters in tropics requires to improve our understanding of the frequency and distribution of hydrometeorological disaster events. These assessments are scarce in many developing countries, despite rapid urban expansion and lacking...

Globally, most active tropical glacial landscapes are found at elevations above 4000 m. Nonetheless, the presence of paleoglacial landforms in low latitudes, especially those formed during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), persists in different tropical regions. Chirripó National Park, in central-south Costa Rica, is one of these particular examples....

(Introducción): La expansión de monocultivos de palma africana (Elaeis guineensis) y piña (Ananas comosus), en Costa Rica, ha degradado en forma progresiva el entorno natural del país, particularmente la región del distrito de Potrero Grande de Buenos Aires. (Objetivo): Se buscó evidenciar la importancia de la conservación en la reserva del Centro...

Over the last decades, Costa Rica became established as a world-leading ecotourism destination due to its environmental policies and environmental awareness. The country is located in a dynamic region where the combination of tectonics and volcanism, and tropical climate and vegetation have molded its landscapes. Our aim is to carry out a review of...

Developing countries face more impacts due to natural hazards because of rapid urbanization, natural resources overexploitation, and lack of territorial management. Mexico City is one of the most populated metropolitan areas of the world and in addition, due to its geophysical dynamics and increasing vulnerability, is frequently impacted by natural...

Volcanoes have a beneficial role in human development; however, this balance could turn to hazardous processes or even environmental disturbances. Costa Rica is a volcanic country. The people of Costa Rica live upon these landscapes and take advantage of the benefits afforded, such as water recharge, the fertile soils for agriculture purposes, and...

The Aneto is the largest glacier of the Pyrenees, is located on the Maladeta Massif (Central Pyrenees), close to the highest point of the range, the Aneto peak (42°37' 52 N, 0°39' 24 E; 3,404 m a.s.l.). This glacier is 675 meters long, occupy an area of 48.64 ha and their maximum altitude is 3,269 meters. The glacier front ends at 3,029 m a.s.l. an...

Climate-vegetation relations in alpine systems play a pivotal role in regulating hydrology and have thus become a research priority in a context of ongoing climate change. In this paper, we investigate how one of the most dominant shrub species in alpine páramo ecosystems of Central America, Hypericum irazuense, responds to changes in precipitation...

Volcanoes are part of the natural environment, and the interactions with humans are inescapable. The geoheritage studies in tropical regions, specifically tropical volcanos, are scarce despite the uniqueness, scientific value, and beauty of these features. We performed an integrated approach for the inventory and management of the geomorphological...

Several high areas of Central America show evidence of past glacial activity, including glacial cirques, polished and striated bedrock surfaces and moraine deposits. As glacial remnants, these morphologies can guide the understanding of past climate conditions, such as during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Based on aerial imagery (1:25,000), detai...

La importancia de la cartografía antigua para la planificación ambiental, económica y estratégica de un espacio geográfico es fundamental para entender los patrones espaciales del pasado y para proyectar las decisiones futuras relativas a la planificación del territorio. A partir tanto de la revisión de guías, protocolos y de la literatura técnica...

The Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL) is a series of volcanic and plutonic morphologies crossing Cameroon at N30° E orientation. Between volcanoes, there is Mount Manengouba that is composed of two nested volcanoes, Eboga and Elengoum. Eboga volcano (EV) reaches 2,391 m with a well-defined caldera (4x5 km). Several geotouristic assets comprising a set o...

Tropical regions are frequently affected by intense floods causing substantial human and economic losses. A proper management of floods and the prevention of disasters is, however, often hampered by a generalized paucity of systematic discharge measurements, which in turn renders any assessment of the frequency and magnitude of extreme floods chall...

The precise determination of landforms and their formation processes are key to accomplish detailed soil mapping and better understand of soil genesis. The Upper General River Basin is located at the southeast of Costa Rica on the transition between Cordillera de Talamanca and General River Valley, forming an extensive alluvial fan sequence . Our w...

El turismo se convirtió en uno de los sectores más importantes de la economía en Costa Rica desde finales de la década de 1980. Es a partir de la llegada masiva de turistas internacionales atraídos por la amplia oferta ecoturística basada en un robusto sistema nacional de áreas de conservación nacional, así como una rápida adaptación tanto del sect...

Several regions of tropical America show imprints of past glacial activity. These relict landforms can support the understanding of past climate conditions, such as during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), and the implications that these paleoclimatic conditions could have had on landscape change. Here, we present and analyze glacial morphologies for...

Supplemental map of the paper: Quesada-Román, et al. (2019) Glacial geomorphology of the Chirripó National Park, Costa Rica, Journal of Maps, 15:2, 538-545, DOI: 10.1080/17445647.2019.1625822

Coto Brus es un cantón al sureste de Costa Rica, funge como un crisol de culturas indígenas, costarricenses, panameñas e italianas que modelaron su territorio durante los últimos setenta años. El objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar el impacto ambiental de la colonización agrícola de Coto Brus y los cambios en el paisaje experimentados en su t...

En países tropicales como Costa Rica, la inci-dencia de procesos de ladera e inundaciones están condicionados por las lluvias extraordinarias, el tipo de sustrato y su grado de meteorización, la sismicidad, la morfología y la inclinación del terreno. La recurrencia y magnitud de estos procesos afectan la cuenca alta del río General en términos de p...

Landslides are a common natural hazard in Costa Rica, recurrently triggered by seismicity and extraordinary rainfall. Here, we investigate the coalescence of both processes and their ability to trigger massive landslides and debris flows in Costa Rica. The study focuses on Miravalles Volcano, affected by an earthquake of 5.4 Mw on July 2, 2016, and...