Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Colombia)

The Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies (Spanish: Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales), also known by its acronym in Spanish, IDEAM, is a government agency of the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development of Colombia. It is in charge of producing and managing the scientific and technical information on the environment of Colombia, and its territorial composition.^[5] The IDEAM also serves as the Colombian institute of meteorology and studies the climate of Colombia. The agency is currently led by the Director General, forestry engineer Yolanda González Hernandez.^[6] González Hernández is a specialist in Geographic Information Systems with a Masters in Meteorology Sciences from the National University of Colombia, and is the first woman to lead the agency.^[7]

Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology and Environmental Studies

Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales
Agency overview
Formed	22 December 1993; 30 years ago (1993-12-22)[1]
Preceding agency	Instituto Colombiano de Hidrología, Meteorología y Adecuación de Tierras
Headquarters	Carrera 10 № 20-30 Bogotá, Colombia
Annual budget	COP$50,689,400,000 (2012)[2] COP$60,814,100,000 (2013)[3] COP$72,937,566,000 (2014)[4]
Agency executives	Ricardo Lozano Picón, Minister Yolanda González, General Director
Parent agency	Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development
Website	www.ideam.gov.co

Creation

It was created on December 22, 1993, when Congress passed Law 99 of 1993, replacing the Colombian Institute of Hydrology, Meteorology, and Land Management (Instituto Colombiano de Hidrología, Meteorología y Adecuación de Tierras - HIMAT),^[1] and it officially started functioning on March 1, 1995.^[5]

Role

IDEAM Pluviometer, located at the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy natural park.

The IDEAM is in charge of gathering and handling specialized information about the different ecosystems found in Colombia; it also establishes technical parameters to promote an adequate use of land use and planning^[8]

The institute is charged with obtaining, analyzing, processing and divulging information pertaining to hydrology, hydrogeology, meteorology, and geography of biophysical, geomorphological aspects, and the vegetation and land area to improve the use and care of the biophysical resources or the country.^[8]

The IDEAM also manages the operation and location of the meteorological and hydrological bases within the country, in order to collect information, forecasts, alerts and advice on the behavior of the climate to the population. It is in charge of monitoring the country's biophysical resources on issues related to their contamination and degradation, crucial for decisions made by environmental authorities.^[1] It also functions as the entity that fulfills the task of the Institute of Meteorology for the study of climate.^[9]

References

1. Colombia, Congress of (22 December 1993). "Ley 99 de 1993" (PDF). Diario Oficial (in Spanish) (41). Bogotá: 146. ISSN 0122-2112. OCLC 500057889. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 August 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
2. Colombia, Congress of (14 December 2011). "Ley 1485 de 2011" (PDF). Diario Oficial (in Spanish) (48). Bogotá: 12, 283. ISSN 0122-2112. OCLC 500057889. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
3. Colombia, Congress of (10 December 2012). "Ley 1593 de 2012" (PDF). Diario Oficial (in Spanish) (48). Bogotá: 13, 640. ISSN 0122-2112. OCLC 500057889. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 6 May 2013.
4. Colombia, Congress of (11 December 2013). "Ley 1687 de 2014" (PDF). Diario Oficial (in Spanish) (49). Bogotá: 1, 24. ISSN 0122-2112. OCLC 500057889. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 January 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2014.
5. "Marco Institucional" (in Spanish). Instituto de Hidrología, Meteorología y Estudios Ambientales. Retrieved 2008-11-12. ^{[dead link]}
6. IDEAM website. "IDEAM Organization Chart" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2020-11-24.
7. Colombian Ministry of Environment, (MinAmbiente). "Yolanda González Hernández, primera mujer en dirigir el IDEAM" (in Spanish). Retrieved 24 November 2020.^{[permanent dead link]}
8. Congress of Colombia (1993-12-22). "Ley 99 de 1993" (PDF) (in Spanish). Bogotá: Instituto de Investigación de Recursos Biológicos “Alexander von Humboldt”. p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-07. Retrieved 2008-11-11.
9. IDEAM website. "IDEAM - Climate in Colombia" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 24 November 2020.