It is very well-known the important contribution that the aquaculture industry generates to the Chilean economy. However, although the localization of the cultivation centres can be decisive in the success of an enterprise of this type, in Latin America there is a scarce use, of the modern tools based on the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for this. This article shows the use of this tool to ponder several critical factors in the determination of the optimum localization of aquiferous

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... tivations in ponds in the coastal border of the III Region of Atacama, Chile. The results show that the optimum areas for aquaculture based on cultivation ponds are centred in three sectors that coincide with areas near the three main ports of the Region: Chañaral, Calsera and Huasco.