TY - JOUR
T1 - Anthropocene and streamflow
T2 - Long-term perspective of streamflow variability and water rights
AU - Barría, Pilar
AU - Rojas, Maisa
AU - Moraga, Pilar
AU - Muñoz, Ariel
AU - Bozkurt, Deniz
AU - Alvarez-Garreton, Camila
N1 - Funding Information:
This research emerged from the collaboration with many colleagues at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR2, CONICYT/FONDAP/15110009). Camila Alvarez-Garreton is funded by FONDECYT Postdoctoral Grant Nº3170428. The authors also thank to José Luis Baquedano who helped to improve the paper with his revision and suggestions and to K. Indvik for her linguistic revision.
Funding Information:
This research emerged from the collaboration with many colleagues at the Center for Climate and Resilience Research (CR2, CONICYT/FONDAP/15110009). Camila Alvarez-Garreton is funded by FONDECYT Postdoctoral Grant N?3170428. The authors also thank to Jos? Luis Baquedano who helped to improve the paper with his revision and suggestions and to K. Indvik for her linguistic revision. This work has been developed within the framework of FONDAP 15110009, and in collaboration with FONDECYT N?3170428.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s).
PY - 2019/1/2
Y1 - 2019/1/2
N2 - Since 1981, water allocation in Chile has been based on a water use rights (WURs) market, with limited regulatory and supervisory mechanisms. The volume to be granted as permanent and eventual WURs is calculated from streamflow records, if stream gauge data are available, or from hydrologic parameter transfer from gauged to ungauged catchments, usually with less than 50 years of record. To test the performance of this allocation system, while analyzing the long-term natural variability in water resources, we investigated a 400 year-long (1590–2015) tree-ring reconstruction of runoff and historical water rights for Perquilauquén at Quella catchment, a tributary to the Maule River in Central Chile (35°S–36°30S). Furthermore, we assess how the current legislation would perform under a projected climate scenario, based on historical climate simulations of runoff calibrated against observed data, and future projections. Our analyses indicate that the allocation methodology currently applied by the Water Authority in Chile is very sensitive to the time window of data used, which leads to an underestimation of variability and long-term trends. According to the WURs database provided by the Chilean Water Directorate, WURs at Perquilauquén at Quella are already over-allocated. Considering regional climate projections, this condition will be exacerbated in the future. Furthermore, serious problems regarding the access and quality of information on already-granted WURs and actual water usage have been diagnosed, which further encumber environmental strategies to deal with and adapt to climate change. We emphasize the urgent need for a review and revision of current water allocation methodologies and water law in Chile, which are not concordant with the dynamics and non-stationarity of hydrological processes. Water scarcity and water governance are two of the key issues to be faced by Chile in the Anthropocene.
AB - Since 1981, water allocation in Chile has been based on a water use rights (WURs) market, with limited regulatory and supervisory mechanisms. The volume to be granted as permanent and eventual WURs is calculated from streamflow records, if stream gauge data are available, or from hydrologic parameter transfer from gauged to ungauged catchments, usually with less than 50 years of record. To test the performance of this allocation system, while analyzing the long-term natural variability in water resources, we investigated a 400 year-long (1590–2015) tree-ring reconstruction of runoff and historical water rights for Perquilauquén at Quella catchment, a tributary to the Maule River in Central Chile (35°S–36°30S). Furthermore, we assess how the current legislation would perform under a projected climate scenario, based on historical climate simulations of runoff calibrated against observed data, and future projections. Our analyses indicate that the allocation methodology currently applied by the Water Authority in Chile is very sensitive to the time window of data used, which leads to an underestimation of variability and long-term trends. According to the WURs database provided by the Chilean Water Directorate, WURs at Perquilauquén at Quella are already over-allocated. Considering regional climate projections, this condition will be exacerbated in the future. Furthermore, serious problems regarding the access and quality of information on already-granted WURs and actual water usage have been diagnosed, which further encumber environmental strategies to deal with and adapt to climate change. We emphasize the urgent need for a review and revision of current water allocation methodologies and water law in Chile, which are not concordant with the dynamics and non-stationarity of hydrological processes. Water scarcity and water governance are two of the key issues to be faced by Chile in the Anthropocene.
KW - Multicentury variability
KW - Runoff variability
KW - Water governance
KW - Water rights
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070531474&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1525/elementa.340
DO - 10.1525/elementa.340
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070531474
VL - 7
JO - Elementa
JF - Elementa
SN - 2325-1026
IS - 1
M1 - 2
ER -