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South-American Transboundary Waters: The Management of the Guarani Aquifer System and the La Plata Basin Towards the Future

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The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies

Abstract

In South America, water is at its heart, underpinning hydropower generation, agricultural production, and industry. Transboundary water bodies cover almost half of South America territory. All countries in the region share transboundary waters, such as aquifers, basins, and rivers that may create enough reason for political conflict among those countries. Therefore, there is a vital need to develop regional strategies to manage those shared water resources, especially with the continuous increase in population growth, climate change, and the increase in demand for water. This chapter takes the La Plata basin and the Guarani Aquifer in South America as a representative example to discuss the management of transboundary water bodies situation and demonstrates how the countries are collaborating to face the challenge to achieve sustainable development on both sides of their borders.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the São Paulo State Research Support Foundation (FAPESP) for financing the research project related to Process no. 2017/17997-9. “The opinions, hypotheses, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are the responsibility of the author (s) and are not reflected in Fapesp's vision”. They also thanked the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), for funding the research “Trans-boundary water management in the La Plata Basin: cooperation and hydro-hegemony”, referring to the 310402/2018-2 process. Finally, they thanked the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) for financing the research project.

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  1. Department of Geography, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Isabela Battistello Espindola, Maria Luisa Telarolli Almeida de Leite & Wagner Costa Ribeiro

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  1. Isabela Battistello Espindola
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  2. Maria Luisa Telarolli Almeida de Leite
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Espindola, I.B., de Leite, M.L.T.A., Ribeiro, W.C. (2020). South-American Transboundary Waters: The Management of the Guarani Aquifer System and the La Plata Basin Towards the Future. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Climate Resilient Societies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-32811-5_51-1

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