Environmental Engineering Reference
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collaborations are in place to improve service and efficiency in the face of novel
challenges, for which expertise may not be at hand at the local level. Specifically in
MINERVE, there has been a transition from informal collaboration and assistance
to a formalisation of the process and agreement. At the local level, communal insti-
tutions that are redundant during 'normal periods' (e.g. Kristenstab ) mobilise
quickly to impending extreme events. These flexible institutions contain both pri-
vate and public actors. While the canton level provides coordination in extreme
events, freedom and autonomy persists at the local level.
10.2.3
Passive
In addition to the two categories of adaptive responses, a third category was utilised
capture responses that contributed to the degradation of the system to a less favour-
able state, resulting from either a failure to transform and adapt (Chapin et al. 2009 ,
p 20) or maladaptation. Responses were coded as 'passive' if they adhered to con-
cepts of steady state resource management, impasses in planning and project pro-
cess with no scope for resolution, or adaptation that further degraded either the
social or the ecological system. Responses that were categorised as passive included
the Aconcagua Project because although it is a project that has a climate adaptation
element to it (managing storage does not necessarily imply maladaptation), it has
been proposed purely in the name of irrigation efficiency and its planning is based
on steady state principles that do not integrate the potential impacts that climate
change may have on the validity of the project.
The Aconcagua project is seen by many agricultural stakeholders as the only
means for enhancing the capacity of the system to cope with increasingly dry
periods, hence the level of frustration that negotiations have run for 10 years without
any resolution. Stakeholders often referred to the loss of water to the sea throughout
the winter period and higher periods of precipitation.
Box 10.4 Water Resources Planning: The Aconcagua Project (Source:
Presentations by DOH, DGA & Agricultural Stakeholders at Universidad
Catolica de Valparaiso, Quillota; (Matta 2011 ) ).
The Aconcagua Project is a major infrastructural project that has been in
planning and negotiation for the past 10 years. It is projected to provide irrigation
security to existing cropland, while also enabling farmers to increase irrigated
area (30 million ha) through enhanced security of their rights. The project is
to build a reservoir (Puntilla del Viento) with a capacity of 110 million m 3
together with a battery of wells in the areas of Curimón, Panquehue and Llay
Llay. The wells would be relied upon only in order to manage periods of
(continued)
 
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