**3. Conclusions**

The arid regions of the Atacama Desert present very promising opportunities for future development, consistent with UN Sustainable Development Goals 11 and 7, sustainable cities and communities, with the use of renewable energy resources and higher standards of energy and water efficiency savings.

It is noteworthy how the new governance and public and private organizations in the region are attuned to the need for development with greater environmental and ecological awareness, proposing new models of development of the urban landscape of desert cities, presenting corporate social and environmental responsibility declared in their missions and institutional visions, and the demands of workers and citizens to care for and worry about improving the quality of life of the built environment, incorporating the values of regional environmental identity.

The environmental determinants of climate change, residential energy costs, environmental pollution of cities declared as saturated, desalination of sea water for human consumption and industrial water, decarbonization of the energy matrix, are very present in society, which requires a high corporate commitment, and care to protect the fragile desert ecosystem, to leave behind the look of the desert as a large landfill in which we can bury pollution or leave it in the middle of the pampas, away from the eyes of criticism, however, today the complaint of citizens and communities, increasingly empowered and critical of large investment projects require compliance with environmental regulations for the care and protection of the desert environment.

The adverse environmental impacts of mining operations include an important requirement for the care of water in an environment of extreme scarcity, which has induced companies to change their groundwater use strategies in response to conflicts generated with indigenous communities and environmental organizations that protect the flora and fauna of the salt flats.

The growing recognition of the Atacama Desert as an enormous energy reserves in natural wind and solar resources, astronomical and mineral resources, and tourism resources of spatial, patrimonial, and environmental interest positions the region as a key piece of the country**'**s strategic development, empowering the region as a pole of frontier research in the aforementioned areas.
