Water-energy-legal nexus: Geographical patterns and relationships among social, legal, industrial, economic and environmental variables

Chile was one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. The economy is mainly supported by the services sector which accounts for 61% of the GDP. However, we are heavily dependent upon the mining industry and recent... [ view full abstract ]

Chile was one of the fastest growing economies in Latin America. The economy is mainly supported by the services sector which accounts for 61% of the GDP. However, we are heavily dependent upon the mining industry and recent contractions within the industry has led to a slowing of Chile’s economic growth rate. The mining industry accounts for around 13% of GDP, the majority of which is from copper recovery. A recent decline in copper prices, reduction in mining investments and lower private consumption has led to a lower GDP growth rate of 1.9% and an increase in unemployment. The agricultural industry is a smaller contributor to GDP at around 3.5% but is a large employer, employing around 10% of the Chilean workforce and providing Chile with strong food security. Water and energy availability is dependent upon latitude as distribution of water resources is highly unequal and the electricity grid in Chile is highly dependent upon hydro-electricity. Water availability is lowest in the northern regionsdue to arid and semi-arid conditions. The majority of water extractions are from groundwater aquifers, although with a low recharge rate these sources are under threat. The central regions are mainly semi-arid and Mediterranean climates, streamflow is pluvial in winter, driven by snowmelt in spring and in summer when rainfall is less than 10% of the annual mean, streamflow is provided via groundwater. The southern regions have a mainly temperate and wet climate with high overall water availability from surface water and aquifers. According to Chilean electricity grid, hydroelectricity provides the greatest source of energy (42%) although this is primarily generated in the south of the country. The remaining generation methods are via thermoelectric sources, mainly coal (25%), gas and diesel (17%). Chile’s thermoelectric plants are mainly located from the central south to the north where there are limited water sources for hydroelectric generation. The current electricity generation mix is highly vulnerable to reduced water availability as a result of climate change and importation of fossil fuels. Competition for consumption of electricity is also very high with greatest demand from the industrial sector. To understand the relationships between water-energy-legal nexus, we built a database with a sample of 1000 legal records corresponding to decisions issued by the Supreme Court and Courts of Appeal all over the country from 1981 to 2014 in water conflicts. We create maps using a color scale to visualize conflict intensity that explain a differential distribution of industries according to geographical conditions. This distribution explains water risks for mining companies allocated between sea level until high altitude in the mountains at north of Chile, where water scarcity is converted to electricity consumption due to desalination and pumping extraction from groundwater. At south of Chile, the irrigation of crops increase water scarcity by pumping’s water from aquifers. So, to understand the nexus we need to understand geographical conditions that finally depend of allocation of conflicts and water-energy nexus. We develop different metabolic flows to leverage resources to provided water and energy to different areas.