The Chilean Water Allocation Mechanism, established in its Water Code of 1981

A long narrow strip of land (no more than 430 km wide) between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean, Chile stretches 4,630 km from near lat. 18°S to Cape Horn (lat. 56°S), including at its southern end the Strait of Magellan and Tierra del Fuego, an island shared with Argentina. In the Pacific Ocean are Chile`s several island possessions, including Easter Island, the Juan Fernández islands, and the Diego Ramírez islands.

Chile´s total land area is 743,800 km2, of which 21.2% is agricultural land (157,687 km2) and 21.8% is forest (162,148 km2). The majority of agricultural land is covered by natural pastures. Arable agricultural land is 1,294,000 hectares (ha.), which is 1.7% of the total land surface. Urban area covers aproximatelly 0.06% of total surface. Currently it is estimated that the area of wetland in Chile is to 4,498,060.7 ha. equivalent to 5.9% of Chile´s total land area.

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