Restoration perceptions and collaboration challenges under severe water scarcity: the Aculeo Lake process

Abstract

A governmental watershed collaborative process in Aculeo, a semi‐endorheic 149 km2 sub‐basin in Chile, debated options for the water scarcity problems they were facing, including their lake desiccation. However, instead of joining forces, discussions around the possibility of recovering the lake generated further conflicts, revealing that it was not a goal shared by all. In this article, we explore the different perceptions and reasons that influenced preferences on restoring or rehabilitating the Aculeo Lake. By collecting, coding, and comparing before and during collaborative process perceptions, we analyzed the perceptions of the proposed Aculeo Lake rehabilitation that are shared among both those who oppose and those who support it. Results indicate that the underlying disagreement was primarily due to differences in shore property rights and lake access, which was also linked to different opinions about land uses in the territory. This research displays how both values and understandings of problems, along with history of a site, can impact stakeholders' restoration preferences and turn into a collaboration challenge.

Cooperation under conflict: participatory hydrological modeling for science policy dialogues in the Aculeo Lake

“…", panels a, b, e and f of Figure 3), the volume of the lake would increase to around 34 Mm 3 (56% of the lake volume) during the Megadrought. Note that as presented by Barria et al (2021), the Aculeo Lake is completely desiccated since year 2018.…”

“…Results from the climatic 'causes' (e.g. precipitation decrease due to megadrought) modeling process along with climate scenarios sensitivity analysis, are better described in Barria et al, (2021).…”

“…Second, these instances were also used by stakeholders to question and challenge the accuracy and validity of the hydrological model being constructed, which in turn forced the modeling team to challenge the official information and search for alternatives sources and approaches to find answers, such as the official versus the real number of water wells. In this process, contrasting opinions on both the causes of the water scarcity and the need to rehabilitate 215 the Lake hinted at the level of underlying tension in this community (Ocampo-Melgar et al, 2021).…”

Rural transformation and differential vulnerability: Exploring adaptation strategies to water scarcity in the Aculeo Lake basin (Chile)

“…In addition to previous LULC analysis and conversations with local experts, literature review of historical and contextual information as well as open interviews conducted with 10 groups of stakeholders in the context of year-long hydrological modeling in the Aculeo basin were used to better understand the social, economic, and environmental drivers of the spatially observed changes (Barría et al, 2021a;Ocampo-Melgar et al, 2022 under review). As part of a parallel study, local stakeholders were interviewed about their perceptions of the climate crisis (causes, impacts, solutions) and their thoughts on strategies to reverse or diminish the water crisis (Ocampo-Melgar et al, 2021). These conversations led to insights on their own economic and environmental challenges, as well as the impact of the different historical conditions and governmental funds on their livelihood (e.g., strategies that were already being applied, governmental incentives being used, economic activities under stress, etc.).…”

The Impact of a Lack of Government Strategies for Sustainable Water Management and Land Use Planning on the Hydrology of Water Bodies: Lessons Learned from the Disappearance of the Aculeo Lagoon in Central Chile

“…Considering all the above, we strongly recommend the Government of Chile to instruct decision makers on hydrological sciences, including surface hydrology, hydrogeology, water efficiency in large-scale agriculture, and water conservation education, among many other initiatives. Equally important, additional community-based strategies are urgently needed in Aculeo [78], as well as improving instrumentation [43] to know extraction volumes and to develop a better understanding of watershed responses to different land use changes [13][14][15][16]22]. Nevertheless, considering that our results show without any doubt that the study conducted by Barría et al [17] is invalid from a scientific perspective, the Chilean Government must take responsibility for the disappearance of this unique natural ecosystem that also affected hundreds of low-income farmers that used to grow annual crops in the valley, the touristic activity that used to exist before the establishment of largescale agriculture, and the wellbeing of the local population in general.…”