Analyzing water policy impacts on vulnerability cases across the rural-urban continuum in the arid Americas

The research examines four case studies in Argentina, Mexico, and the USA to demonstrate how disconnected or neoliberal water policies exacerbate vulnerabilities for less privileged groups in arid regions. It argues that water policies act as key non-climatic factors that can either increase or reduce climate vulnerability depending on their inclusivity and coordination with other resource policies.

• Water policies in arid regions often interact with land and neoliberal policies across various scales, which disproportionately increases the vulnerability of less privileged groups and widens disparities.
• The study identifies four specific vulnerability cases: disconnected groundwater and surface water management in Mendoza, Argentina; the transfer of local water rights to large-scale mining in central Sonora, Mexico; land use changes driven by water competition in peri-urban Hermosillo, Mexico; and the exclusion of underserved communities from rainwater harvesting in Tucson, Arizona, USA.
• To reduce climate vulnerability and protect livelihoods, the authors recommend inclusive policymaking, systematic public data collection on water use and environmental health, and the coordination of natural resource policies.

APA

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (2025). Analyzing water policy impacts on vulnerability cases across the rural-urban continuum in the arid Americas. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/analyzing-water-policy-impacts-on-vulnerability-cases-across-the-rural-urban-continuum-in-the-arid-americas/

Chicago

Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Analyzing water policy impacts on vulnerability cases across the rural-urban continuum in the arid Americas. 2025. https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/analyzing-water-policy-impacts-on-vulnerability-cases-across-the-rural-urban-continuum-in-the-arid-americas/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research |title=Analyzing water policy impacts on vulnerability cases across the rural-urban continuum in the arid Americas |date=8 January 2025 |url=https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/analyzing-water-policy-impacts-on-vulnerability-cases-across-the-rural-urban-continuum-in-the-arid-americas/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{interamericaninstituteforglobalchangeresearch2025analyzing, author = {{Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}}, title = {{Analyzing water policy impacts on vulnerability cases across the rural-urban continuum in the arid Americas}}, institution = {Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research}, year = {2025}, month = jan, url = {https://iai.int/es/pub_acad/analyzing-water-policy-impacts-on-vulnerability-cases-across-the-rural-urban-continuum-in-the-arid-americas/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }