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Water scarcity or transition to renewable energies? Market of non-consumptive water-use rights under the Water Energy Nexus in the geography of southern Chile

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No. 63 (2022)
https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5370.2022.67784

Abstract

In 1981, Chile created the legal figure of consumptive and non-consumptive Water-Use Rights (WURs), which gave way to the process of water commoditization and the consequent "water market". Since that date, multiple investigations have studied the evolution and characteristics of the consumptive WURs market but focused on consumptive WURs in northern and central Chile. In this article we present and analyze the main characteristics of the non-consumptive WURs market in the south of Chile (two communes of the Los Ríos Region), where User Organizations and irrigated agriculture are not predominant in relation to water use, but rather hydroelectric use. Furthermore, we demonstrate that, contrary to the consumptive WURs markets, water scarcity is not the most important factor that explains why this market has been so active in the last 10 years (2007-2016), but rather the geographic and economic configuration of each right, where issues such as flow, slope, location of each WURs, as well as environmental and engineering studies associated with each WURs, are determinant to make these rights attractive in the market. This research contributes to the understanding of how water markets operate in areas with concentrated Small Hydropower (SHP) development, incorporating the Water-Energy Nexus in its analysis.

Keywords:

Hydroelectricity, nonconsumptive water use rights, prices, water market, water scarcity

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How to Cite
Valdés Negroni, J. M., Kelly, S., & Fuster, R. (2022). Water scarcity or transition to renewable energies? Market of non-consumptive water-use rights under the Water Energy Nexus in the geography of southern Chile. Investigaciones Geográficas, (63), 4–23. https://doi.org/10.5354/0719-5370.2022.67784
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Investigaciones Geográficas
Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo
Universidad de Chile
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