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commercial aspects of irrigated agriculture under restricted water
availability and increasing air temperature.
The need of a regional agency for planning reasonable policies
addressing water conservation, water recycling, and water-use
optimization in both productive and consumptive human activities;
and implementing them in harmony with federal agencies responsible
for the management of national water resources to enhance the effi cacy
and the effi ciency of those policies (Girardin 2006).
5. Institutional strengthening (future action). The need of a regional
agency to fund interdisciplinary mitigation and adaptation research
programs with universities and other public and private research
institutions, and foster the participation of stakeholders in various
stages of the planning and realization of those programs.
6. Institutional strengthening (future action). The need of a regional
administrative system for planning, coordinating and compiling
greenhouse gas inventories with a view of using them to base
mitigation and adaptation regional policies.
7. Extreme climatic events (future action). The need of an early warning
system for reducing the risk of damages to people and property from
extreme climatic events.
Conclusions
The hydrologic regime in the areas of the Cuyo and NOA regions under
strong infl uence of the Andean system of mountains is the most exposed to
the regional peculiarities of precipitation and temperature evoked by global
warming. Water stored in glaciers and in forested watersheds is expected
to decrease in the future thereby putting under stress the wellbeing of the
regional population and ecosystems and, in the case of the major exorheic
regional rivers, that of life downstream. The population and the economy
in the NOA and Cuyo regions are most likely to increase in the future—
the demand for water is likely to increase in a plausible scenario of water
availability already strained by a regional warming. In that same scenario
extreme weather events are likely to occur, adding a further strain to the
environment, life and property. To cope with these threats the regions of
NOA and Cuyo should take decisive and timely steps to increase their
adaptability and resilience to a changing climate. In view of the foregoing,
each of NOA and Cuyo regions will need to implement context-specifi c
policies of adaptation and mitigation to the extent of the expected climate
change impacts. Most of those would be in line with recent conclusions
from a relevant meeting of Latin American countries. 11
Life and property are under threat in the NOA and Cuyo regions. The
regions should not wait for the outcome of present international negotiations
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