Piloting Drought Management Participatory Modeling-Based Approaches in Chile

Chile's unique geography and climatic zones, including the arid Atacama desert in the north and the cold, humid Patagonian zone in the south, represents a challenges for water resource management. Droughts, and particularly mega-droughts, have become more frequent and intense, affecting not only the north but also central regions like the Maipo basin basin, located in the Metropolitan Region. To address these issues, this project aims to develop a Drought Management Plan (DMP) for the Maipo basin, and to support analysis of drought conditions, including characterization of spatial coverage, intensity, and duration, a Drought Management module has been implemented in WaterALLOC, combining the Hydro-BID and MODSIM modeling systems. This case study focuses on the Maipo river basin in Chile, using the Drought Management module in WaterALLOC to simulate response stages for mitigating drought impacts. The study highlights the importance of integrated tools and modeling systems for enhanced water resources planning and decision-making in drought-prone regions. Finally, a capacity training program aimed at strengthening the technical capacities of local stakeholders in water resources management was implemented.