The sustainable use of natural resources in the next century will require the use of new methods and laws for the protection and maintenance of inland water bodies. In pursue of this goal the Chilean Ministry of Public Works has been conducting a series of studies to move from traditional approaches to allocate water rights in chilean rivers to a new type of approach which takes into account of complexities of both the river ecosystems and the chilean legal framework. A field study aimed to collect information for the application of new methodologies for allocation of water rights was conducted from january to August 1999 in the southern part of the country. The Universidad de Chile as part of a cooperation program with the Chilean Ministry of Public Works conducted this study. This study included the collection of field data such as flow depth and velocity, fish habitat, recreational opportunities in the area, physical and chemical parameters, as well as vertebrates and invertebrates baseline. Based upon the collected information a modification of the IFIM methodology was applied to determine minimum flow requirements for the Liucura river in the southern part of Chile. As part of this analysis a comparison between ecological flows based upon traditional hydrological techniques and instream flow techniques was conducted.
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