Fog catchers and water collection in a Colombian paramo ecosystem Colectores de niebla en un páramo andino

Abstract

Fog collectors are used to intercept water contained in fog and supply water to communities that live in places where this resource is scarce. We evaluated the use of mist collectors to collect water in an area located in the Pan de Azúcar paramo, Duitama-Boyacá. We installed 60 mist collectors, 24 of them with devices to measure the volumes of water intercepted. The volumes of water captured were measured in periods of 24 hours for 26 days during one year and we used the geometric model to differentiate the water from the fog. The recorded precipitation was higher than that reported in the literature. Monthly rainfall ranged between 51 and 1198mm and mean monthly temperature ranged between 6 and 8°C. The average volumes of water collected by the fog collectors were below 0.5Lm-2day-1 with a maximum of 4.4Lm-2day-1. The contributions of water from the mist ranged between 0.02 and 1.77 mmday-1. The direction of the wind did not affect the capture of water and there is still uncertainty when separating the real contribution of water from the fog from the orographic rain, which continues to be a challenge in the paramo ecosystems, for which it is necessary to expand research, to improve the designs and efficiencies of fog collectors.