Contrasting American and Brazilian Systems for Water Allocation and Transfers
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 141, Issue 7
Abstract
The United States and Brazil both deal with water-related problems associated with being large territorial areas having uneven distribution of water resources and population. Water transfer projects have been widely considered to be feasible solutions to the mitigation of local water shortages. This paper contrasts American and Brazilian water allocation systems and water transfer projects, located in the Colorado and Piracicaba River basins, seeking potential exchanges between these two water management systems and analyzing their adaptability to trends in water demand and climate. This evaluation indicates that the American system could potentially benefit from some of the principles present in Brazilian framework, including (1) participatory approach involving government, users, and citizens; (2) recognition of the economic value of water; and (3) prioritization of drinking water supply during shortage times. In turn, the Brazilian system could benefit from certain characteristics of American water management, including reduced bureaucracy and a more efficient decision and operation process. Interestingly, both countries have found it useful to employ soft-path solutions to ensure system adaptability to future water demand and supply.
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Acknowledgments
The investigation reported in this paper was conducted while the first author was a visiting student at the University of Arizona. The authors are grateful to Violeta Cabello (Universidad de Sevilla), Sergio Segura (Universidad de Sevilla), Zhao Yang (University of Arizona), Kremena Boyanova (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences), Gloria Salmoral (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid), and Dr. Franck Poupeau (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique), participants in the EU-funded Sustainable Water Action (SWAN) Project, for sharing ideas that inspired this article, and to Derek Groenendyk (University of Arizona) for technical contributions. The first author was supported by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP Processes 2011/11653-0, 2012/05515-6, and 2008/58161-1). The second and third authors obtained partial support from the EU funded SWAN project (grant 294947) under the EU 7th Framework Programme. We thank the anonymous reviewers for their very helpful comments and suggestions.
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Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 141 • Issue 7 • July 2015
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© 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.
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Received: Oct 8, 2013
Accepted: Aug 5, 2014
Published online: Sep 18, 2014
Discussion open until: Feb 18, 2015
Published in print: Jul 1, 2015
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