Analyzing water policy impacts on vulnerability: Cases across the rural-urban continuum in the arid Americas.

Climate change is posing emerging threats to people and the environment, particularly in arid regions. However, some groups are more vulnerable than others, depending on their levels of exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity, which are determined by climatic and non-climatic factors. In water-scarce environments, water policies become key non-climatic factors that affect vulnerability yet enable modifications if their impacts unintentionally exacerbate vulnerability. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the impacts of water policies on vulnerability, particularly for disadvantaged groups. In this paper, we analyze four cases in the arid Americas that illustrate an array of challenges at different scales and across the rural-urban continuum: (1) irrigated oases in Mendoza, Argentina, where groundwater and surface water management are disconnected; (2) rural communities in central Sonora, Mexico, where local water rights have been transferred to large scale mining; (3) peri-urban marginalized neighborhoods in Hermosillo, Mexico, where competition for water is driving changes in land use; and (4) underserved communities in Tucson, Arizona, USA who are left behind in a rainwater harvesting movement. Our analysis shows that water policies in arid regions interact with land and neoliberal policies between sectors across different scales, exacerbating vulnerabilities disproportionately in less privileged groups and enhancing disparities. Here, we offer recommendations for more inclusive policymaking processes that can build capacity, protect the livelihoods of disadvantaged groups, and reduce their vulnerability to climate change. • Understanding vulnerability in arid lands must consider the effects of water policies on the livelihoods disadvantaged groups. • Neoliberal policies are effective sources of vulnerability in groups that do not benefit from the production of commodities. • Coordination between natural resource policies is needed to provide coherence and avoid enhanced vulnerabilities. • Reliable data on water use and environmental health must be collected systematically and be available to the public. • Policies must support wellbeing understood as a multidimensional state directly linked to environmental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]