Pedernales, Dominican Republic
Pedernales is a Dominican city and the capital of the Pedernales province, in the southwest of the country close to the border with Haiti.
Municipality | |
 | |
 Coat of arms | |
| Coordinates: 18°02′0″N 71°45′0″W / 18.03333°N 71.75000°WCoordinates: 18°02′0″N 71°45′0″W / 18.03333°N 71.75000°W | |
| Country | Dominican Republic |
| Province | Pedernales |
| Founded | 1927 |
| Municipality since | 1957 |
| Municipal District | José Francisco Peña Gómez |
| Area | |
| • Total | 883.8 km2 (341.2 sq mi) |
| • Urban | 6.62 km2 (2.56 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 10 m (30 ft) |
| Population (2010)[1] | |
| • Total | 14,590 |
| • Density | 16.508/km2 (42.756/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 13,077 |
| Time zone | UTC-4 (AST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-4 (AST) |
| Distance | 135 km (84 mi) to Barahona 335 km (208 mi) to Santo Domingo |
Name
The name of "Pedernales" was given to the town when it was founded because that was the name of the river that now is the border between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Pedernales or silex ("flint") is the name of a hard mineral that is common in the region.
History
Before the conquest of the island by European people, some native groups lived around the place where the city of Pedernales is now.[4] But soon those groups disappeared and very few people came to live here because it is a very dry region.
When the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present Haiti) was created, the Pedernales river was the southern border between that colony and the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo (present Dominican Republic). During those colonial times, some soldiers came here for some time but almost nobody lived here for a long time.
In 1927, the Dominican government brought farmers from other places of the country and made a town for them; the new town was given the name of Pedernales and its first administrator was Sócrates Nolasco who later became a well-known writer.
The town became, in 1938, a municipal district (an administrative division of a municipality in the Dominican Republic) of Enriquillo, province of Barahona.
When the Pedernales province was created in 1957, the town of Pedernales became the capital of the new province.
Population
The municipality had, in 2010, a total population of 14,590: 7,473 men and 7,117 women. The urban population was 89.6% of the total population.[1]
Geography
The only rivers in the municipality, and in the province, are the Pedernales river and its tributary Mulito.
Sierra de Bahoruco ("Bahoruco mountain range") is in the northern half of the municipality; its highest mountain, and the highest mountain of the province, is Loma del Toro, 2,367 m (7,766 ft) above sea level, in the limits with the Independencia province.[3]
The municipality has a total area of 883.8 km2 (341.2 sq mi) and has only one municipal district (a subdivision of a municipality): José Francisco Peña Gómez.[5]
The altitude of the city of Pedernales is 10 m (33 ft) above sea level.[3]
The municipality of Pedernales has the Independencia Province to the north, the Barahona Province to the east, the municipality of Oviedo to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the south and Haiti to the west. The city is at about 0.5 km (0.3 mi) from the border with Haiti.
Climate
Pedernales has a subtropical steppe/low-latitude semi-arid hot climate (Köppen-Geiger classification: BSh).[6]
The average amount of rainfall for the year in the city is 497.6 mm (19.6 in). The month with the most precipitation on average is September with 91.4 mm (3.6 in) of rainfall, followed by October with 83.6 mm (3.3 in).
The driest season is winter. The month with the least rainfall on average is January with an average of 8.5 mm (0.3 in) followed by February with an average of 9.4 mm (0.4 in).
Pedernales is in a hot region; the average temperature for the year is 27.5 °C (82 °F). The warmest month, on average, is August with an average temperature of 29.75 °C (85.5 °F). The coolest month on average is January, with an average temperature of 25.4 °C (77.72 °F).
| Climate data for Pedernales (1961–1990) | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
| Average high °C (°F) | 31.5 (88.7) |
31.3 (88.3) |
31.8 (89.2) |
32.6 (90.7) |
33.5 (92.3) |
34.8 (94.6) |
36.0 (96.8) |
36.1 (97) |
35.8 (96.4) |
34.9 (94.8) |
33.6 (92.5) |
32.2 (90) |
33.68 (92.62) |
| Daily mean °C (°F) | 25.4 (77.7) |
25.4 (77.7) |
26.0 (78.8) |
26.8 (80.2) |
27.7 (81.9) |
28.6 (83.5) |
29.7 (85.5) |
29.8 (85.6) |
29.4 (84.9) |
28.6 (83.5) |
27.3 (81.1) |
26.1 (79) |
27.57 (81.62) |
| Average low °C (°F) | 19.3 (66.7) |
19.5 (67.1) |
20.1 (68.2) |
20.9 (69.6) |
21.8 (71.2) |
22.4 (72.3) |
23.4 (74.1) |
23.4 (74.1) |
23.0 (73.4) |
22.2 (72) |
21.6 (70.9) |
19.9 (67.8) |
21.46 (70.63) |
| Rainfall mm (inches) | 8.5 (0.335) |
9.4 (0.37) |
20.2 (0.795) |
42.0 (1.654) |
71.1 (2.799) |
24.1 (0.949) |
27.0 (1.063) |
57.2 (2.252) |
91.4 (3.598) |
83.6 (3.291) |
42.8 (1.685) |
20.3 (0.799) |
497.6 (19.591) |
| Source #1: NOAA[7] | |||||||||||||
| Source #2: Climatemps.com[6] | |||||||||||||
Administrative division
The municipality of Pedernales has only one municipal district:[5]
| Code | Municipal district | Population (2010) |
|---|---|---|
| 160102 | José Francisco Peña Gómez | 9,701 |
Economy
Because Pedernales is on the border, the trade with Haiti is important. But the main economic activity is farming, mainly on the mountains, where coffee and beans are important products. Potato, cabbage and other vegetables are produced in the Sierra de Bahoruco.
Fishing is also an important activity in the province, mainly close to the Beata Island, where lobster, conch and several kind of fishes are caught.
Tourism is becoming an important economic activity because there are several beautiful beaches with white sand, like Cabo Rojo and Bahía de las Águilas. There are two of the largest national parks of the country: the Jaragua National Park and the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park.
Mining of limestone to send to other countries and for a cement factory is another important economic activity in the municipality.
Pedernales, Dominican Republic Media
Park of Pedernales Dominican Republic.
Pedernales, Dominican Republic people.
Park of Pedernales Dominican Republic.
Airport in the Cabo Rojo area.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "IX Censo Nacional de Población y Vivienda 2010" (PDF) (in Spanish). Oficina Nacional de Estadística. June 2012. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ↑ "Expansión Urbana de las ciudades capitales de R.D. 1988-2010. Informe Básico" (PDF) (in Spanish). Oficina Nacional de Estadística. April 2015. p. 54. Retrieved 10 December 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)[dead link] - ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 De la Fuente, Santiago (1976). Geografía Dominicana (in Spanish). Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Editora Colegial Quisqueyana.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ↑ Veloz Maggiolo, Marcio (1972). Arqueología Prehistórica de Santo Domingo (in Spanish). Singapur: McGraw-Hill Far Eastern Publishers. p. 88.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ↑ 5.0 5.1 "División Territorial 2015" (in Spanish). Oficina Nacional de Estadística (ONE). October 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 November 2015. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ↑ 6.0 6.1 "Pedernales Climate & Temperature". Climatemps.com. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
- ↑ "Pedernales Climate Normals 1961-1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2016.
| Provincial capitals of the Dominican Republic | 
|
|---|---|
| Azua • Baní • Barahona • Bonao • Comendador • Cotuí • Dajabón • El Seibo • Hato Mayor • Higüey • Jimaní • La Romana • La Vega • Mao • Moca • Monte Cristi • Monte Plata • Nagua • Neiba • Pedernales • Puerto Plata • Sabaneta • Salcedo • Samaná • San Cristóbal • San Francisco de Macorís • San José de Ocoa • San Juan de la Maguana • San Pedro de Macorís • Santiago de los Caballeros • Santo Domingo • Santo Domingo Este | |