Legal disputes as a proxy for regional conflicts over water rights in Chile

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dc.contributor.authorRivera, Diego
dc.contributor.authorGodoy Faúndez, Alex
dc.contributor.authorLillo, Mario
dc.contributor.authorAlvez, Amaya
dc.contributor.authorDelgado, Verónica
dc.contributor.authorGonzalo-Martín, Consuelo
dc.contributor.authorMenasalvas, Ernestina
dc.contributor.authorCostumero, Roberto
dc.contributor.authorGarcía-Pedrero, Angel
dc.date.accessioned2016-10-14T22:08:22Z
dc.date.available2016-10-14T22:08:22Z
dc.date.issued2016
dc.description.abstractWater demand and climate variability increases competition and tension between water users agricultural, industrial, mining, hydropower- and local communities. Since 1981, the Water Code has regulated water allocation through private individual property rights, fostering markets as the distribution mechanism among users. When legal conflicts occur between parties, it is the responsibility of the courts to settle the conflict. The aim of this research is twofold: first, to apply a geographical approach by mapping water conflicts using legal disputes reaching the higher courts as a proxy for conflict intensity and second, to explain the diversity of water disputes and how they vary regionally. We built a representative database with a sample of 1000 legal records corresponding to decisions issued by the Supreme Court and 17 courts of appeal throughout the country from 1981 to 2014. For geo-tagging, all records were transformed to plain text and analyzed to find words matching the entries of a geographical thesaurus, allowing records to be linked to geographical locations. The geo-tagging algorithm is capable of automatically populating a searchable database. Several maps were constructed using a color scale to visualize conflict intensity. Legal disputes represent different types of conflicts among water users, such as competition between agriculture and hydropower. Processed data allowed the identification of the regional variation of conflicts. The spatial pattern for the intensity of conflicts related to specific sections of the Water Code is explained in terms of the main geographical, climatic and productive characteristics of Chile. Geo-tagging legal records shows a strong potential to understand and define regional variation of water conflicts. However, data availability would become a barrier if measures to improve data management were not taken. Regarding the institutional framework, the same regulations for water management rules are applied throughout the highly diverse ecosystems of the country, impeding the resolution of conflicts that are strongly related to the local geographical context. This leads to a collision of interests and visions around water resources of both a public and private, extractive and non-extractive uses, national, and international nature of individuals, aboriginal communities, and corporations, especially mining industries. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
dc.identifier.citationRivera, Diego & Godoy-Faundez, Alex & Lillo, Mario & Alvez Marin, Amaya & Delgado, Verónica & Gonzalo-Martin, Consuelo & Menasalvas, Ernestina & Costumero, Roberto & García-Pedrero, Ángel. (2016). Legal disputes as a proxy for regional conflicts over water rights in Chile. Journal of Hydrology. 535. 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.01.057.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11447/772
dc.identifier.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.01.057
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subjectWater conflicts
dc.subjectWater rights
dc.subjectWater markets
dc.subjectWater stakeholders
dc.titleLegal disputes as a proxy for regional conflicts over water rights in Chile
dc.typeArtículo

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