Uploaded on 2016-08-07 by María Piedad Aguirre

1. PEOPLE, WATER and ENERGY 2.PEOPLE, Stock: La Serena has a population of 198,164 people, Flows: a) La Serena is an important tourist destination for the country, receives more than 1,000,000 tourists annually. b) Also, La Serena is considered a commuter town for the mining sector because of the proximity to mining. The miners have a shiftwork system, for example 7x7; 7 working days and other 7 of break in the city with their families. WATER, La Serena is supplied with drinking water by a plant located in the town of Las Rojas, 23 km from the city, which extracts water from the Elqui river. After used, the water is carried to a primary wastewater treatment plant before being discharged into the sea. The water is a stock and flow, because is taken from the river, treated, stocked, enter the city, is used by people, treated again and then leaves the city. ENERGY, La Serena is a city and the capital of the Coquimbo Region. Energy sources in the region are 35.4% of thermal energy (petroleum-diesel based centrals) and 64.6% of Non-Conventional Renewable Energy (ERNC), being the most important wind farms, as they represent 94% of the ERNC of the region. These are connected to a substation of the Central Interconnected System (SIC), which collect energy that has been produced in the central and transform it to send it through the power lines to where it is needed. 3. For PEOPLE, the 40% of the astronomical infrastructure of the planet is in Chile, and it is estimated that reaches the 70% in the next decade. La Serena is known as the main gateway to the scientific and tourist observatories in the Coquimbo Region which accounts the 47% astrotouristic offer of the country. As the astronomical infrastructure increase more people will come to the city, the project: Astrotourism Chile (2015) aims to triple the visits to the astrotouristics offers, from the current 262,000 to 750,000 by 2025. For WATER, it is very important to build a wastewater treatment plant due the drought affecting the area and hence the need for the proper use and reuse of water, treated wastewater could be injected to the irrigation system for agriculture or industrial purposes, which also brings an environmental benefit to marine ecosystems. For ENERGY, gradually the government is encouraging the use of renewable energy such as residential solar panels, today there are subsidies for the installation of solar panels for water heating in social housing which mean annual savings of the 80% in electricity or natural gas. In the future financing systems for the installation could be implemented to widespread renewable energies. *The picture is not mine: http://staticd71.lavozdelinterior.com.ar/sites/default/files/archivo/nota_periodistica/chile1_9.jpg