**2.3 The management**

According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report, the vulnerability of the city of Antofagasta to climate hazards is very likely for components such as floods, storms, and landslides (alluvium, landslides, debris

**Figure 29.** *Flowerful desert, after an untraditional rainfall event.*

flows) and very likely for components such as sea level rise, coastal flooding, droughts, high tides and strong waves, landslides, debris flows) and probable for components such as sea level rise, coastal edge flooding, droughts, high tides, and strong waves are high, implying a significant management of these hazards, which are part of situations that have occurred more frequently and are part of real and concrete evidence [19].

Given the conditions described above, the process of adaptation to climate change is an indicator that should be projected in urban and territorial development projects of cities in arid areas. In the particular case of the city of Antofagasta, the impact is double and complex given its location in a narrow coastal plain between the sea and the coastal mountain range, and therefore the rise in sea level and the possibility of alluvium caused by rainfall will have devastating impacts on the environment and especially on the most disadvantaged groups that are informally located on the hillsides and ravines.

In general, the conceptualization processes of the urban structure of the city must be improved in the face of the vulnerabilities described above and, in particular, the design and construction conditions of housing and buildings not designed to withstand rainfall or extreme temperatures, all of which implies changes and updates to housing regulations, which is easy to propose but difficult to implement [20].

In this order, the fragility of desert environments and territories is something that has not been sufficiently repaired, being territories rather depopulated areas, transformations and aggressions to the landscape have remained without the consequence of respect for the environment, there are many areas declared saturated with pollution, mining operations without mine closures and huge pools of accumulation of liquid industrial waste (Riles) from mining companies. Among the main impacts caused by mining effluent discharges and infiltrations are the generation of clear water and acid drainage, the presence of which can result in damage to aquatic systems and plant communities, and negative effects on surface and groundwater quality [21].

Another challenge that is directly related to the quality of life in arid cities is linked to the need to scale the technologies that are developed in the productive industries of the region and contribute to the improvement of the facilities and infrastructure of the
