Availability of and access to water and energy are key ingredients for economic and social development.
Water security is "the availability of, and access to water sufficient in quantity and quality to meet the health, livelihoods, ecosystem and production needs of populations, coupled with an acceptable level of water-related risk".
Social, economic, political, and environmental conditions operate through proximal factors such as food availability, access to health services, and hygienic provisions for water and sanitation.
Across Chile, access to water is a major issue: its availability in Santiago, the capital, is predicted to fall by 40% by 2070.
Access to water and irrigation depends not only on the availability of water, but also on the legal and regulatory systems governing its distribution and use.
Access to water transportation, reservoirs of natural gas and oil, and availability of raw materials have made the coastal area the centre of industry in Texas.
While area availability is the ultimately limiting factor for expanded production of energy crops, limited access to water and nutrients may also constrain bioenergy potentials.
Access to water is characterized by inequalities: it depends not only on natural water availability, but also on the respective socio-political context.
On the other hand, being subdominant may mean less access to water and less stemflow in favour of the roots, limited access to ground water, or less water availability when stocking beside anisohydric neighbours which are continuously exploiting the available water supply (Wullschleger et al. 1998; Pretzsch et al. 2014; Grote et al. 2016).
