Flood-Affected Areas from La Niña Events in Colombia

Two distinct geospatial datasets from Colombia's IDEAM map areas affected by flooding caused by the La Niña climate phenomenon in 1988 and 2012. The data, provided as shapefiles, includes polygon geometry and attributes for emergency classification and area in hectares. A detailed legal disclaimer accompanies the datasets, stating they are raw, unvalidated outputs intended for transparency and risk management support, but not for legal evidence.

Use Cases

• Mapping historical flood extents using the_geom and AREA_HA.
• Classifying the type or severity of flood emergencies using the EMERGENCIA column.
• Calculating the total flooded area per event by aggregating SHAPE_Area or AREA_HA values.
• Analyzing spatial patterns of La Niña-related flooding over different years (1988 vs. 2012).

Strengths

• Provides specific geospatial data for two distinct La Niña events (1988 and 2012).
• Includes concrete geometric attributes (SHAPE_Area, SHAPE_Length) and a classification field (EMERGENCIA).
• Is available on multiple platforms, indicating recognized utility for open data purposes.

Limitations

• Critical metadata is missing: row counts, file size, explicit license, and author are not provided.
• The data is explicitly described as raw, unvalidated, and not suitable for legal evidence, limiting its authoritative use.
• Update dates (2026) are inconsistent with the described historical event years, suggesting potential metadata errors.

Provenance

Source

IDEAM (Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales) via www.datos.gov.co

Collection Method

Likely generated from sensor networks and inter-administrative agreements, as described in the disclaimer.

Time Range

1988, 2012

Freshness

2026-05-22 06:39:14

Geography

Colombia