# Introduction

## OACG - Hydrology for Costa Rica

This web application is a viewer of **hydrological information** for 605 catchments for Costa Rica, developed using the [HYPE](https://hypeweb.smhi.se/model-water/about-hype-code/) hydrological model, using global data products adjusted with available data observed. The platform has been developed using [Python](https://www.python.org/) and open-source libraries.

This **100% free** tool provides hydrological information such as *hydrological balances*, *hydrological indicators*, and *time series* at different time scales of *precipitation*, *runoff*, *evapotranspiration*, *potential evapotranspiration*, *infiltration*, and *soil moisture* in a free and easily accessible way.

Developed by the [Observatory of Water and Global Change (OACG)](https://www.oacg.fcs.ucr.ac.cr/), of the [School of Geography at the University of Costa Rica](https://www.ucr.ac.cr/), in collaboration with *Dr. Saúl Arciniega Esparza*, of the [Hydrogeology Group](https://www.ingenieria.unam.mx/hydrogeology/) at the [Faculty of Engineering UNAM](https://www.ingenieria.unam.mx/), Mexico.

This short manual explains how to use the web application, the source data, the hydrological model with its results, and how to interpret the simulations.

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The **data** in this application is **not official** and has been generated mainly for academic and divulgation purposes.
{% endhint %}

{% hint style="info" %}
The **OACG - Hydrology for Costa Rica** web application has been developed for screens of at least 13 inches, so it is not recommended to use it on mobile devices such as cell phones. Furthermore, it is recommended to launch the application in web browsers such as *Mozilla Firefox*, *Microsoft Edge,* or *Google Chrome*.
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[Broken link](https://docs.oacg-hydrology.site/english/broken-reference)
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## Acknowledgment

The development of this application is due to the efforts of several institutions that have collaborated either with access to hydrological information for the calibration of the hydrological model, as well as collaboration for the processing of the information. We would like to particularly thank the **Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE)** for sharing the hydrometric information used for the calibration of the model, the **National Meteorological Institute (IMN)**, which provided the climatological information for the correction of the satellite data, and the **Geophysical Research Center of the UCR (CIGEFI)** who have collaborated with the processing of hydrological information.

## Content

1. [Web Application Tutorial](https://docs.oacg-hydrology.site/english/tutorial_en)
2. [Documentation](https://docs.oacg-hydrology.site/english/documentation)
3. [Contacts](https://docs.oacg-hydrology.site/english/contacts)


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