Contingent Agreements to Reduce the Impacts of Droughts on Human Water Consumption
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Date
2025
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Publisher
Springer
Abstract
One of the expected impacts of climate change is the alteration of precipitation and temperatures, modifying hydrological regimes and water availability. Faced with these changes, it is essential to adopt measures to guarantee the quantity, quality and continuity of drinking water supply to the population. This chapter proposes an instrument that consists of the design and implementation of pre-agreement contracts for the temporary transfer of water volumes from agriculture to water utilities. The application of the instrument is presented using the Aconcagua River basin and the Valparaíso-Viña del Mar conurbation in Chile as a case study. Through simulation models, the transfers, and economic compensations of a potential application of the instrument are characterized and evaluated considering different future climate scenarios, drought triggers for activation of pre-agreements, compensation scenarios based on human basic water consumption thresholds, and opportunity cost of water used in the agricultural sector.