Dissemination | Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini

III Jornada de Hidrología

Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Context

From January 21 to 23, 2026, the Pucón Campus of the Universidad de La Frontera (UFRO) hosted the , bringing together members of the national hydrology community and reaffirming the event’s role as a key platform for collaboration among scientific research, professional practice, and public water management in Chile.

Promotional flyer for the .

This activity was organized by the , the and the of the , convened by the , and sponsored by the , the , the Department of Water Resources of the , and the .

The event was led by Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini, with the organizing committee also including Dr. Alonso Pizarro (Universidad Diego Portales), Dr. Sebastián Krogh (Universidad de Concepción), and Dr.(c) Eduardo Muñoz-Castro (SLF-ETH).

Organizing Committee of the . From left to right: Dr. Alonso Pizarro (UDP), Dr(c) Eduardo Muñoz (SLF-ETH), Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini (UFRO), and Dr. Sebastián Krogh (UdeC)

In a context characterised by high climate variability, persistent drought conditions, and an increasing frequency of extreme hydrometeorological events, Hydrology has become a strategic discipline for evidence-based decision-making. Within this framework, the convened researchers, professionals from the public and private sectors, and undergraduate and graduate students from across the country, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue and strengthening professional networks.

Keynote lectures

The scientific program featured two keynote lectures:

, delivered by Dra. Pilar Barría (U. de Chile). The lecture reviewed the current regulatory framework and its implications for emerging water institutions, examined proposed policy changes, and discussed pathways to reconcile the concepts of integrated water resources management (IWRM), resilience, and water security in operational watershed management.

Figure 1. Dra. Pilar Barría.

, delivered by Dr. Camila Álvarez Garretón, researcher at the Center for Climate Science and Resilience (CR2). Her presentation addressed current challenges and future scenarios related to water availability and water use in Chile, emphasizing the need for integrated planning under changing climatic conditions.

Figure 1. Dra. Camila Álvarez-Garretón during her keynote lecture.

Thematic sessions

The scientific program also included , each featuring oral presentations and poster sessions that highlighted recent advances in research and professional practice:

Poster session.

Specialized courses

As an integral component of the Conference, two specialised courses were offered to strengthen technical and professional competencies in key areas of water management.

Course 2a: , led by Jorge Labra, representative of AQUAFLOW.

Figure 2a. Engineer Jorge Labra (AQUAFLOW)

Course 2b: , delivered by Diego Ojeda of Montgomery & Associates Chile.

Figure 2b. Engineer Diego Ojeda (Montgomery & Associates Chile)

These training activities were well attended and distinguished by their applied orientation and direct relevance to current operational challenges in the water sector.

Field trip

One of the most highly valued activities among participants was the field trip, designed to provide direct exposure to the natural environment and monitoring infrastructure supporting hydrological research in the upper Trancura River Basin near Llafenco. The activity began at the UFRO Pucón Campus and continued to PuAm Ecolodge, where participants visited both a meteorological station and a soil moisture monitoring site.

The excursion included a guided trek through native vegetation, allowing participants to observe local conditions influencing hydrological processes. Simple field measurements, including infiltration tests, were conducted to illustrate water movement at the local scale and its connection to hydrological modeling and watershed analysis.

Participants in the field trip to PuAm Ecolodge.

Chilean Hydrology Prize

One of the most significant milestones of the meeting was the inauguration of the “Chilean Hydrology Prize”, an award established to recognize individuals whose careers have made substantial contributions to the advancement of hydrology in Chile.

In its first edition, the prize was awarded to Professor Ximena Vargas Mesa, in recognition of her enduring legacy in Chilean hydrology, her outstanding academic achievements, and her influential role in advancing engineering and applied hydrology, as well as in training generations of hydrologists over more than four decades.

Organizing Committee of the together with Professor Ximena Vargas, recipient of the first Chilean Hydrology Prize.

Faculty members attending the together with Professor Ximena Vargas, recipient of the first Chilean Hydrology Prize.

Acknowledgments

The Organizing Committee of the expressed its sincere gratitude for the financial and institutional support provided by AQUAFLOW, Montgomery & Associates Chile, Vertientes, and IECOM, whose contributions were essential to the successful implementation of the event.

With strong participation and a broad range of disciplinary perspectives, the concluded by reinforcing the importance of strengthening professional networks, promoting knowledge exchange, and advancing water management grounded in scientific evidence, inter-institutional collaboration, and territorial relevance. The event thereby consolidates its position as a leading national forum for hydrology in Chile.

Official photo of the (some attendees are missing).

Hidrodesafios 2025 Seminar

Wed, 26 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On Wednesday, November 26th 2025, I participated as a speaker at the seminar “ ” organized by the Sanitation Services Concessionaire Company S.A. (ECONSSA Chile) with sponsorship from the Chilean Association for Water Rights (AChDA) and Fundación Chile.

This event took place from 8:30 hrs at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in the Las Condes district, with the objective of addressing the future of the sanitation sector in a context of water scarcity and climate change, and analyzing the role of seawater desalination and wastewater reuse in confronting the water crisis.

My presentation was entitled “ ”, in which I addressed three key challenges for water resources in the Araucanía Region:

changes in the hydrological regime of mountain catchments and their impact on projected spring and summer streamflows,
selection of indices and timescales used to monitor droughts and the importance of linking them with droughts impacts on the territory,
the role of soil moisture in peak streamflows generated by intense storms, and preliminary results from an early flood warning system currently developed for critical basins of the Araucanía Region.

At the end of the day, representatives from the two presidential candidates debated the future of the healthcare sector in the context of water scarcity and climate change.

More information and the program for the event can be found at

Debate on proposals for the water and sanitary sector in Chile

III Regional Climate Change Seminar

Fri, 21 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

On Friday, November 21 2025, I participated as a speaker at the III Regional Climate Change Seminar, organized by the Regional Environmental Secretariat (SEREMI) of the Araucanía Region, the Regional Government of the Araucanía Region, the Catholic University of Temuco, and EBP.

The seminar aimed to share the contents of the with key stakeholders in the region, strengthening regional understanding, ownership, and commitment to addressing the challenges of climate change.

Through a participatory, informative, and cultural forum, the seminar sought to highlight the actions being implemented in the region, promote the exchange of experiences, and raise awareness about the importance of local climate action to move towards a more resilient and sustainable region. The event included the participation of regional experts and professionals from public institutions who presented studies, projects, and public policy developments with an applied focus on case studies.

Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini’s presentation, titled showcased the progress of the ( ) on three key issues related to water resources in the Araucanía Region:

Changes in the hydrological regime of mountain basins and their impact on projected spring and summer flows,
Trends towards increased droughts and water scarcity,
increased risk of floods and mudslides, with damage to communities and infrastructure.

A panel discussion followed.

SICyR 2025: Sessions HC2 and HC7

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Members of the participated in the , an event that brought together leading researchers, academics, and professionals from the social and natural sciences. The symposium took place on November 3-4 in Santiago, where the plenary sessions and workshops were held, and continued from November 5-7 in Viña del Mar, where the thematic scientific sessions took place.

Scientific Sessions

Between November 5th and 7th, I organized two thematic sessions. The first, HC7. Droughts: Monitoring, Propagation, and Impacts in a Changing Climate, was co-organized by Dr. Pablo Spennemann, an Argentinian professor with whom I have maintained an active collaboration since the , an initiative aimed at strengthening scientific exchange on drought in South America. The second session was HC2. Hydrological Processes in a Changing Climate, which I co-organized with Dr. Mauricio Galleguillos from Adolfo Ibáñez University, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue on hydrological processes in a changing climate context.

Furthermore, I gave an oral presentation titled “Understanding soil memory: how antecedent moisture modulates streamflow responses to precipitation events,” a collaborative work with Dr. Oscar Báez-Villanueva (University of Ghent, Belgium), Dr. Violeta Tolorza (formerly of UFRO), and student Héctor Garcés-Figueroa. This study addresses the influence of antecedent soil moisture on the hydrological response to precipitation events and is part of the Fondecyt Regular Project No. 1212071.

Similarly, some members of the presented the following work:

Héctor Garcés-Figueroa, a research assistant on the Fondecyt Regular project 1212071, gave an oral presentation on the work “Ahead of the Flood: Medium-Range Hydrological Forecasting for Southern Chilean Catchments” which explores the use of medium-range hydrological forecasts to improve flood anticipation in basins in southern Chile. He also co-authored the presentation by Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini.
Rocío Muñoz, a member of the Observatory and a Civil Engineer from the University of La Frontera, presented a poster titled “Operational Monitoring of Soil Moisture Anomalies for Continental Chile”. This work makes a significant contribution to the development of tools for monitoring and analyzing soil moisture at a national scale, and is part of his doctoral thesis project.
Fernando Gimeno Molina, a doctoral candidate in the Doctoral Program in Natural Resources Sciences at the University of La Frontera, presented his research in poster format, titled “Soil Mapping Matters: Changes in High Streamflow Simulations through Spatial Soil Information”. His study highlighted the relevance of spatial soil information in modeling high-flow events, a key issue for flood risk management.

The presentations by the Kimün-Ko team generated considerable interest among the attendees, receiving positive and insightful feedback from researchers at various national and international universities. The quality of the work, along with the approach applied to the current challenges of climate change and water resource management, was widely recognized by the scientific community.

The Observatory’s participation in this symposium reaffirms its commitment to cutting-edge research and interdisciplinary collaboration, contributing relevant knowledge to build a more resilient society in the face of the impacts of climate change.

Drought Propagation

Finally, this international symposium allowed me to meet for the first time with Dr. Pablo Spennemann, an Argentinian researcher with whom I am investigating the mechanisms and timescales that control drought propagation in four Chilean river basins (Petorca, Mapocho, Cauquenes, and Trancura), from precipitation deficits to decreased soil moisture and flow rates, and the impact on vegetation.

Former and current Kimün-Ko members along with Dr. Mauricio Gellguillos (UAI), Giancarlo Casanova, DR(c) Emilia Figueiras (AR) y Dr. Pablo Spennemann

SICyR 2025: Course 'Using R for Spatiotemporal Data Analysis'

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

R Course: Spatiotemporal Data Analysis

On November 4th 2025, I taught the course Using R for Spatiotemporal Data Analysis: Application to Precipitation from CR2Met2.5, which was attended by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as public and private sector professionals.

Course Using R for Spatiotemporal Data Analysis: Application to Precipitation from CR2Met2.5

XXVII Congreso Chileno de Hidráulica: Course 'Using R for spatio-temporal data analysis: application to daily data CR2Met v2.5'

Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

R Course: Spatiotemporal Data Analysis

From October 20th to 25th, the was held at the Faculty of Engineering of Concepción (FI UdeC). The congress was convened by the Chilean Society of Hydraulic Engineering (SOCHID) and organized by the Department of Civil Engineering of the University of Concepción. The event consisted of courses, scientific presentations, and lectures featuring the participation of engineers, academics, and students.

On October 21th, I taught the course Using R for spatio-temporal data analysis: application to daily data CR2Met v2.5, which was attended by undergraduate and graduate students, as well as public and private sector professionals.

Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini at Foro UdeC

UFRO team at Foro UdeC

UFRO team with Dr. Oscar Link (UdeC)

Two works at EGU 2025

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

During the week of April 28th to May 2nd, 2025, I participated in the 2025 European Geosciences Union ( ) Conference, held in Vienna, Austria. This is the most important European conference in the field of Earth Sciences, held annually and attracting researchers from all over the world.

On this occasion, I presented a poster and participated as a co-author in an oral presentation:

. This works presents the first South American evaluation of various gridded soil moisture products, which were compared with in situ measurements available in four Chilean watersheds since 2021. The poster is available at . This collaboration was only possible thanks to funding provided by ANID through the Fondecyt Regular project 1212071, which allowed the colaboration with (U. Adolfo Ibañez) and Daniel Nuñez, a student from the in U. de Chile.

Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini at EGU 2025

. In this work, Héctor Garcés, a thesis student of the Civil Engineering degree at Universidad de La Frontera, presented to the international community the development of a prototype flood early warning system, applied to critical catchments in the Araucanía region. This prototype was developed by the student as part of his undergraduate thesis and during a professional internship at the General Water Directorate of the Araucanía Region. It should be noted that this work was an oral presentation, which is an important exception at this very prestigious international event. Normally, only academics, doctoral students, postdocs, and master’s thesis students present at this conference. This reflects the high quality of the work being conducted by thesis student Héctor Garcés. This work also received ANID funding through the Chile-China international collaboration project and the Fondecyt Regular project 1212071.

Héctor Garcés F. at EGU 2025

Finally, during this conference I was able to discuss possibilities of collaboration with from the Univeridad Diego Portales, and to talk about a joint article with from Ghent University (Belgium), and with from Sun Yat-sen University (China, co-PI of the international collaboration project NSFC190018), among others.

Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini, Dr. Pizarro and an Italian colleague at EGU 2025

Héctor Garcés F., a Chilean student in Europe, Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini, Dr. Pizarro at EGU 2025

Two works at EGU 2024

Sat, 13 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

During the week of April 15 to 19, 2024, two works will be presented by PhD(c) Fernando Gimeno in the , held in the city of Wien (Austria):

. This works presents the development of Intensity-Duratin-Frequency (IDF) curves for the climatically and topographically diverse Chilean territory (17-56ºS), using both stationary and non-stationary approaches based on three state-of-the-art gridded datasets (IMERGv06B, ERA5, ERA5-Land). This collaboration was only possible thanks to funding provided by ANID-Fondecyt Regular 1212071, ANID-PCI NSFC 190018, and ANID-Fondecyt Iniciación 111908064.
. This work addresses the pressing need for robust soil input data for SWAT+ hydrological model, by evaluating assessing the performance of four different soil type maps in the respresenation of streamflows and soild moisture data in the mediterranean Cauquenes in Desembocadura River Basin. This work was only possible thanks to funding provided by ANID-Fondecyt Regular 1212071, ANID-PCI NSFC 190018.

My Caption

Two works at International SWAT Conference (Aarhus, Dinamarca)

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

During the week of June 26th to 30th, 2023, I participated in the International Conference , held at the (Aarhus Denmark). This is a small conference, aimed at all scientists working with the worldwide. On this occasion, more than 170 scientists from 41 countries on six continents participated.

I participated as co-author in one paper and presented another:

. In this work, the Master’s candidate Rodrigo Marinao Rivas presented to the eco-hydrological model user community. is a new package for multi-objective calibration, which combines two search mechanisms to maintain population diversity and accelerate its convergence towards the Pareto optimal front. is model-independent, allowing the calibration engine to interact with any type of model that needs to be run from the command line, including SWAT and SWAT+, but also other hydrological models available in R (eg, , , ). In addition, is independent of the operating system used (i.e. it can run on GNU/Linux, Mac OSX and Windows, among others) and can run on multi-core machines or network clusters, which significantly alleviates the load computational associated with the optimization of complex models with long execution times.
. In this paper, Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini presented an application of the multi-objective calibration software to the eco-hydrological model implemented in the Trancura River Basin before Llafenco (Araucanía Region). In this work, two cases of multi-objective calibration were analyzed. In the first case study, the SWAT+ model was simultaneously calibrated for two time periods: one with normal/wet conditions and one with dry conditions (i.e., below-normal rainfall). In the second case study, daily flows at the outlet of the basin and average monthly real evapotranspiration throughout the basin were calibrated simultaneously. The package has been developed by Civil Engineer Rodrigo Marinao, who is a graduate of Civil Engineering at the Universidad de la Frontera, a student of the Master’s Degree in Engineering Sciences from the same university, and a research assistant at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR2). The collaboration between Rodrigo Marinao and I began from the Hydrology course in the Civil Engineering degree, and has continued uninterrupted since then. This work also received funding from the .

Finally, during this conference, I took the opportunity to clarify doubts about the implementation of the growth of some plant species typical of Chile, learn about the latest advances in the development of the model (e.g., , , ), and possibilities of collaboration with doctoral candidate from the .

My Caption

Four works at EGU 2023

Tue, 02 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

During the week of April 24 to 28, 2023, I participated in the , held in the city of Wien (Austria). On this occasion, I presented two works and participated in other two:

. In this work, I presented , a new package for the that is about to be submitted to . This package expands the functions of the terra package to work with gridded data that has a time attribute. In particular, hydroRTS allows you to work efficiently with large amounts of gridded data that have an hourly, daily, monthly, or annual time frequency. This work summarizes a large amount of work that I has done since 2013. However, only the collaboration of Civil Engineer Sebastián Bernal, graduated in 2022 from Civil Engineering at the Universidad de la Frontera, allowed to systematically organize and adequately document a set of functions that are useful for the Hydrological and Earth Sciences community worldwide. This collaboration was only possible thanks to funding provided by the .
. In this work, I presented to the international community an application of , an package for global multi-objective optimization. In this work, two cases of multi-objective calibration of the SWAT+ semi-distributed hydrological model in the Trancura River Basin before Llafenco (Araucanía Region) were analyzed. In the first case study, the SWAT+ model was simultaneously calibrated for two time periods: one with normal/wet conditions and one with dry conditions (i.e., below-normal rainfall). In the second case study, daily flows at the outlet of the basin and average monthly real evapotranspiration throughout the basin were calibrated simultaneously. This package has been developed by Civil Engineer Rodrigo Marinao, who is a graduate of Civil Engineering at the Universidad de la Frontera, a student of the from the same university, and a research assistant at the . The collaboration between the Marine Engineer and I began from the Hydrology course in the Civil Engineering degree, and has continued uninterrupted since then. This work also received funding from the .
. In this paper, Dr. Oscar Baez-Villanueva (TH Köln, Germany) presented a paper that analyzes which meteorological drought indices (SPI, SPEI), soil moisture (ESSMI) or snow (SSWEI) are more related to the occurrence of hydrological drought (SSI-1), based on the hydrological regime (i.e., pluvial, pluvio-nival, nivo-pluvial, nival) of 100 basins of Central-South Chile. This work has been carried out in collaboration with me within the framework of the project “Drought and water security platform for catchment planning: historical evolution and future trajectories under global change”, financed by ANID in the Rapid Assignment Contest Fondo de Strategic Research in Drought for the year 2021, whose director is Dr. Camila Álvarez Garreón (CR2).
. In this paper, Fabian Lema, a Master’s candidate at the , presented a paper where the characteristics of drought events in six basins of Central-South Chile are analyzed, both for a historical period and for a future period. Dr. Pablo Mendoza from the University of Chile invited I to participate in this work thanks to his collaboration as an evaluating member of Fabián Lema’s Master’s thesis.

Finally, during this conference, I took the opportunity to discuss, among other things, postgraduate collaboration possibilities with from the (USA) and to talk about a joint article with Dr. Oscar Baez-Villanueva from the (Germany) and with from the (Arabia Saudita).

My Caption

Two posters at AGU 2022

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

During the week of December 12 to 16th, 2022, I participated in the Conference , held in the city of Chicago ( USES). This is the most important conference worldwide in the area of Earth Sciences, and it is held annually.

On this occasion, I presented two posters:

. hydroRTS is a new package for the that is about to be submitted to [CRAN]( - project.org/). This package allows you to work efficiently with large amounts of gridded data that have an hourly, daily, monthly, or annual time frequency. This work summarizes a large amount of work that I have carried out since 2013. However, only the collaboration of Civil Engineer Sebastián Bernal, who graduated in Civil Engineering in 2022 from the Universidad de la Frontera, made it possible to organize systematically and adequately document a set of functions that are useful to the global community of Hydrologists and Earth Scientists. This collaboration was only possible thanks to the funding provided by the , directed by Dr. Zambrano-Bigiarini.
. is a new package for the that is about to be submitted to [CRAN]( - project.org/). This package allows you to perform a multi-objective calibration of any hydrological/environmental model (actually, a model from any subject area), whether this model is implemented in R or requires to be executed from the system console in a local PC or in a server. This package has been developed by Civil Engineer Rodrigo Marinao, who is a graduate of Civil Engineering at the Universidad de la Frontera, student of the of the same house of studies, and research assistant at the . The collaboration with Rodrigo Marinao started during the Hydrology course in the Civil Engineering degree, and has continued uninterrupted since then. This work also received funding from .

Finally, during this conference I took the opportunity to discuss various topics with Dr. Camila Álvarez Garreón (CR2), Dr. Mauricio Galleguillos (U. Adolfo Ibáñez) and Dr. Juan Pablo Boiser (CR2), who also participate in the .

My Caption

Seminario Cambio global y recursos hídricos: experiencias y desafíos

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Researchers from the Universidad de La Frontera, U. de Chile, U. de los Lagos and the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR)2, will meet this Friday, July 30th, to address some relevant issues from their professional and academic experience for the country and La Araucanía in terms of water resources.

Organized by the , the Seminar “Global change and water resources: experiences and challenges”, aims to disseminate the advances and experiences related to national water resources and generate a space for discussion with public services , the university community and local actors related to water resources, addressing topics such as: climate change, drought, water security, new data sources, water allocation permits, land use management and its impact on water availability, and erosion in forested catchments.

The full note inviting to this Seminar can be read

My Caption

Workshop on Climate Change Challenges for La Araucanía (Temuco)

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Workshop on Climate Change Challenges for La Araucanía

On July 25, 2019, I made an oral presentation at the workshop entitled “Regional challenges of climate change for La Araucanía region”, organized by the Regional Ministry of Environment of the Araucanía region.

This seminar was held in the Aula Magna of the Universidad Mayor in Temuco, and was attended by various municipalities, NGOs, civil organizations and members of the Regional Committee on Climate Change (CORECC).

My presentation was entitled “Climate Change and Drought: Projections for Chile and Araucanía”, where 7 climate scenarios (RCP 8.5) for the Araucanía region were analysed, along with the water-related challenges that the Araucanía region very likely will face during the rest of this century.

More information .

My Caption

Workshop on Efficient Management of Water Resources (Vallenar)

Fri, 28 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Workshop on Efficient Management of Water Resources

On June 28th 2019 I made an oral presentation at the workshop “Efficient Management of Water Resources: a challenge against Climate Change”, organised by the University of Atacama and carried out at Vallenar in the Atacama region.

This workshop was funded by the Regional Government of Atacama in the framework of the finalization activity of the FIC Project “Laboratorio para el estudio hídrico de la Cuenca, uso eficiente, monitoreo y predicción de caudales aplicando Modelo de Redes Neuronales Artificiales y Snow Runoff Model Nasa para la cuenca del Río Huasco, Región de Atacama, Chile”.

My presentation was entitled “Space-time evaluation of IMERGv05-F satellite precipitation estimates over different climates and the complex topography of Chile”, which discussed the improvement of the lastest satellite estimates derived from the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. In the afternoon, a hands-on training was carried out aimed at local stakeholders.

More information .

My Caption

Oral presentation at AGU 2018

Fri, 14 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

During the second week of December 2018, I made an oral presentation at the in Washington D.C. (USA), the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences worldwide.

The work was entitled (Final paper number ). It evaluates the improvements of the latest IMERG version 05 Final Run (IMERGv05-F) over its predecessor TMPA 3B42v7, over the diverse climatic gradients and complex topography of Chile, from January 2015 to December 2016.

In addition, I participated as co-author in the work (Final paper number ), which summarises the MSc thesis carried out by Hamish Hann ( ) during his visiting period at the University of La Frontera (first semester 2017).

My Caption

Oral presentation at SPIE 2018

Tue, 23 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

From 24 to 27th of September 2018 I participated at the SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing symposium, which took place in Honolulu (Hawaii, USA). In that conference I made an oral presentation entitled , which was finally published in the proceedings of the international Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers ( ):

Zambrano-Bigiarini, M. (2018) “Temporal and spatial evaluation of long-term satellite-based precipitation products across the complex topographical and climatic gradients of Chile”, Proc. SPIE 10782, Remote Sensing and Modeling of the Atmosphere, Oceans, and Interactions VII, 1078202 (23 October 2018); doi: 10.1117/12.2513645;

My Caption

Oral presentation at EGU 2018

Sat, 14 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

During the second week of April 2018, I made an oral presentation at the in Vienna (Austria), the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences in Europe.

The work was entitled ( ). It analises the suitability of the combined use of state-of-the-art satellite-based precipitation (CHIRPS) and potential evapotranspiration (MOD16A2) estimates to characterise the spatial distribution of the so called “Chilean megadrought”, which has affected the central-southern territory of Chile (29ºS-46ºS) during the last decade.

In addition, I participated as co-author in the following three works presented at the same conference:

. [EGU2018-12036].
. [EGU2018-2374].
. [EGU2018-18702].

The first two works are product of the interdisciplinary collaboration at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research ( ), while the last work summarise the MSc thesis carried out by Hamish Hann ( ) during his visiting period at Temuco (first semester 2017).

My Caption

Oral presentation at AGU 2017

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

During the second week of December 2017, I made an oral presentation at the in New orleans (USA), the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences worldwide.

The work was entitled (Final paper number ). It uses two drought indices to analyze the impacts of precipitation and temperature on the frequency, severity and duration of Chilean droughts (25°S-56°S) during the XXI century, using multi-model climate projections consistent with the high-end RCP 8.5 scenario.

In addition, I participated as co-author in the work ) (Final paper number ), which evaluate several sate-of-the-art satellite-based rainfall estimates (TMPA 3B42v7, TMPA 3B42RT, CHIRPSv2, CMORPH, PERSIANN-CDR and MSWEPv1.2) over different basins in Latin-America (Imperial Basin in Chile, Paraiba do Sul in Brazil and Magdalena in Colombia) to determine the best performing satellite product.

My Caption

Short course on use of R for analysing satelite-based rainfall estimates (SREs) in Germany

Fri, 05 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

During the first week of May, I gave a short course to postgraduate students of the of TH Köln ( ).

This course had two parts, the first one was given by the doctoral student Oscar Baez, who was at UFRO last April. The objective of this first part (April 23th to 27th) was to provide students with basic concepts about , free software environment for statistical computing and graphics, (installation, types of variables, exploratory data analysis, and spatial data management). The second part (May 3rd and 4th) was to introduce participants to the management of time series in R, and the use of it for the analysis of spatio-temporal data, in particular for reading and analysing satelite-based rainfall estimates (SREs), expanding the work “ ” presented at the EGUA 2017 during the last week of April ( ), which was an oral .

This short course is product of the international collaboration with Lars Ribbe and Alexandra Nauditt from the of TH Köln ( ).

My Caption

Participación en la Conferencia EGU 2017

Thu, 27 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

During the last week of April, I presented two works on the , the most important scientific event of Earth Sciences in Europe.

The first work was ( ), which was an oral about the use of R, the free software environment for statistical computing and graphics, for analysing different spatio-temporal datasets of precipitation at the Chilean spatail scale.

The second work was the oral presentation ( ), which summarises the main findings about the performance of seven different satellite-based precipitation products over the Chilean territory.

Both works are the product of the international collaboration with researchers from Germany, Costa Rica and Chile on the use of different satellite-based precipitation products as a complement to current ground-based rainfall measurement networks.

Spanish version:

Durante la semana del 24 al 28 de Abril, presenté dos trabajos en la conferencia , el evento científico más importante de Ciencias de la Tierra en Europa.

El primer trabajo fue ( ), una sobre el uso de R, el ambiente estadístico libre, para el análisis de distintos conjuntos de datos espacio-temporales de precipitaciòn a escala nacional (Chile).

El segundo trabajo fue la presentación oral ( ), la cual resume los principales resultados de una comparación exhaustiva de siete productos satelitales de precipitación sobre el territorio de Chile.

Ambos trabajos son producto de la colaboración internacional con investigadores de Alemania, Costa Rica y Chile, sobre el uso de distintos productos satelitales de precipitación como complemento a las actuales redes de medición pluviométrica.

My Caption

Poster presentation at AGU 2016

Tue, 13 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

On December 13th 2016, I presented the work titled at the conference . In this work I used two drought indices to analyze the contribution of precipitation and temperature to the recent droughts that have affected Chile, in order to improve our understanding about the onset, duration and magnitude of these events.

It is the first time that a professor with affiliation “Universidad de La Frontera” presents in this conference, the most important of Earth Sciences worldwide.

This work is part of a collaborative research that I carry out for the of the Universidad de Chile.

Spanish version:

El pasado 13 de Diciembre de 2016, presenté el trabajo titulado en la conferencia . En este trabajo utilicé dos índices de sequía para analizar la contribución de la precipitación y la temperatura a las recientes sequías que han afectado Chile, para mejorar nuestra comprensión acerca del inicio, duración y magnitud de estos eventos.

Es la primera vez que un docente con afiliación Universidad de La Frontera presenta en este evento, el más importante de las Ciencias de la Tierra a nivel mundial.

Este trabajo forma parte del trabajo como investigador adjunto que realizo para el de la Universidad de Chile.

My Caption

PhD summer school Remote Sensing applications for Water Accounting

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Water accounting is a fundamental basis to understand water availability and demands and the related benefits and efficiencies are related to water uses. While the fundamental data needed for establishing water accounts is often missing, Remote Sensing can contribute to fill the data gaps. With this course PhD students and staff at ITT will become familiar with the application of Remote Sensing to derive information on precipitation, evapotranspiration and land cover - three essential information elements for water accounts. Dr. Raul Vicens from Universidade Federal Fluminense de Brasil will introduce the basic techinques of Remote Sensing using the software SPRING and introduce to derive land cover information from products such as Landsat. Dr. Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini from , Chile, will focus on the use of the software to derive Precipitation estimates from products such as TRMM. Finally Dr Islam Sabry from the National Water Research Center, Egypt will introduce the use of satellite based estimates for evapotranspiration data.

My Caption

Research and Education Week on the Water, Energy and Food Security Nexus

Fri, 15 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The (WEF Nexus) is currently a highly important debate in environmental policy with expected implications for priorities in research, education and international cooperation. Increasing demands for water, energy and food together with external and internal change drivers on current natural resources use patterns make the Nexus idea crucial to understand the multiple resource use interlinkages. The invited partners from current Nexus-related projects for an international gathering from the 11th until the 15th of July 2016. The Nexus Research and Education Week invited also external presenters and students into the discussion on how to address together many of the key interlinkages like sustainable land and water management practices, climate related risks in terms of droughts and extremes or increasing resource use efficiencies along river basins.

During the Nexus Week, the professor Mauricio Zambrano-Bigiarini along with international partners presented their case studies from related projects as nexus laboratories useful for enhancing educational contents and outlining future collaborative research activities. International experts and young researchers were involved in providing insights on the WEF Nexus topic from ongoing research and and outlining further research demand. Different case studies with WEF-Nexus related topics at river basin scale were presented from countries such as Jordan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Pakistan, Chile, Ecuador, Costa Rica and Colombia and also larger scales as the Mekong, the Nile and Paraiba do Sul region or even global scale. The Nexus Week aimed at expanding the network of partners related to Nexus topics and interdisciplinary regional and basin planning initiatives and offered an opportunity as an exchange platform. During additional side events of the Nexus Week, the participants developed new project ideas and exchanged experiences on integrated water basin management during a visit to the International Commission for the Protection of the Rhine. Further more, different Nexus products were presented and prepared for further development in the future.

For more information about the project please visit the website:

My Caption