The social vulnerability indicators for Ecuador are spread over the themes of population, economy, infrastructure, education,and health. The dataset of Ecuador is composed by 56 indicators at level P3 of subnational geographic organization given in 1024 subdivisions distributed into parishes known in Ecuador as parroquias. The chart below (figure 1) explains the percentage of variables in the total dataset under each specific main theme.

Figure 1

Indicators are separated into groups (or sub-indices) that share the same dimension (e.g. population, economy, infrastructure, etc.). These individual indicators are aggregated into sub-indices, and the sub-indices are, in turn, aggregated to construct the final composite model. Table 1 shows the entire dataset variables for Ecuador divided in the respective themes and subthemes.

Table 1. Ecuador variables of social vulnerability

The entire 56 indicators were statistically analyzed. In addition to a harmonized dataset, a reduction of the socio-economic indicators into a smaller parsimonious set of variables that best represent social and economic vulnerability cluster analysis was performed. The multi-variable statistical analysis was utilized to provide a statistical basis for the choice of indicators.

A correlation analysis was performed on the above variables (table 1). Highly correlated variables (Spearman’s R>0.700) were eliminated from further consideration to avoid subjectively choosing one variable over another for inclusion in subsequent analyses. The correlation analysis is useful in reducing the data to a set of variables that are parsimonious and acceptable to represent the social vulnerability of the population in Ecuador.

Table 2. Ecuador final variable selection

The spatial distribution of the social vulnerability in Ecuador explains the socio-economic conditions of the population at subnational level in the country. Figure 2 provides the social vulnerability overview of the subcomponents at the subnational parishes in the country; the spatial distribution of the sub-components shows high levels of social vulnerability in the population subcomponent (figure 2A) in the rural areas across the country mostly in the Andes and the Amazon regions. Limited access to education (figure 2B) and basic services i.e water and electricity under the infrastructure subcomponent (figure 2C) tend to be more present in urban areas reason why the Major cities like Quito, Guayaquil, and Ibarra remain in the low to moderate levels of social vulnerability. Likewise, the economy subcomponent (figure 2D) show high levels of social vulnerability in major urban areas i.e Guayaquil, Quito, this is due to the fact that urban areas are the economic hubs of the country and the majority of the population and their livelihoods are concentrated in major cities. Lastly, the health subcomponent shows high levels of social vulnerability in rural parishes in most cases away from major cities where the health assistance may not be permanent available.

Figure 2. Ecuador sub-components of social vulnerability

(A)	(B)	(C)

(D)	(E)

The spatial distribution of the integrated risk for Ecuador is obtained from combining the social vulnerability and the risk average annual losses indexes. High integrated risk can be understood as those subnational areas experiencing high seismicity, high physical earthquake risk, and high levels of social vulnerability. The social vulnerability index for Ecuador revealed that rural parishes experience the highest levels of social vulnerability (figure 3A); whereas, the major urban cities Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, Portoviejo, Esmeraldas remain at low to moderate social vulnerability. The integrated risk (figure 3C), however; marks major urban cities has high risk, this is due to the fact that the aforementioned cities and surrounding parishes are located in high seismic risk zones as seen in the physical risk results (Figure 3B). Major cities experience great losses and moderate levels of social vulnerability, resulting in high risk areas in the integrated risk model.

Figure 3. Ecuador integrated risk index

(A)	(B)	(C)