Climate Change Vulnerabilities and Adaptation in Mediterranean Systems

Abstract

Chile’s central territory is characterized by the presence of a typical Mediterranean with strong seasonality in its precipitation regime. Spanned over almost 1200 km., this region holds several important economic sectors and large cities that strongly depend on winter precipitation and spring summer snow melt discharge for the satisfaction of their water demands. Current climate change projections developed for this region, show an increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation that may well affect water resources both from a demand and supply sides. To the extent that the climate becomes drier and warmer, river discharge will be affected both in magnitude and seasonality, and the rate of evaporation will increase. As a consequence, we believe that several important activities, such as the provision of potable water, generation of electricity and the ability to maintain economically viable yields in irrigated agriculture, will be put at risk especially if other global change drivers start to materialize. We also argue that a basic sectorial impact assessment show important limitations, and that it is necessary to expand the framework of current analysis and capture interactions between water competing sectors including also ecologically driven water demands. The aim of this work is to revise existing evidence of the impacts of climate change on water resources in Mediterranean central Chile and discuss the implications that these impacts will change for different sectors in a more int