The future of water and economics: A regional approach in Colombia.

In this chapter, the authors focus on a developing country that must deal with social, political, and economic issues together with the threats posed by climate change. They provide a mesoscale analysis – by including different economic sectors, regions, urban and rural areas – to show that an aggregate scale approach might generate misleading results and, eventually, biased policies. The authors combine the issues of water use for economic purposes and the provision of water utilities that have been evaluated separately so far. Colombia is a water-abundant country; however, it is characterized by high spatial and temporal variability in water supply, affecting the socio-economic structure across its regions. Although water is abundant in Colombia, external (climate) and internal (social-economic processes) forces might lead to overexploitation with heterogeneous spatial consequences. Despite water is abundant in Colombia, external factors (climate) and social-economic forces might lead to overexploitation with heterogeneous spatial aftermaths.