Preliminary Morphometric Analysis: Rio Talacasto Basin, Central Precordillera of San Juan, Argentina

Preliminary morphometric analysis: Rio Talacasto basin, Central Precordillera, San Juan, Argentina. This work analyzes various morphometric characteristics of Rio Talacasto basin, situated approximately 80 km northwest of the city of San Juan, in the Central Precordillera geological province. Various morphometric parameters were analyzed in order to evaluate its flash flood hazard. For this purpose, some measurements (area, perimeter, length, width, maximum and minimum height and Strahler order, slope, aspect, curvature and convergence index, topographic position index, and roughness index) were calculated. These measurements allow a future analysis to predict approximately the behavior of the basin in the presence of a series of theoretical rainstorms that may generate unusual runoff volumes. The importance of this evaluation is that the studied basin includes the National Route 149 and the Provincial Route 436, both being the main accesses to the northern and western portions of the province. The results obtained conclude that the basin has a significant susceptibility to the occurrence of flash floods and other landslides.