A dense rain-gauge network within continental Ecuador was used to evaluate the quality of various products of rainfall data over the Pacific slope and coast of Ecuador (EPSC). A cokriging interpolation method is applied to the rain-gauge data yielding a gridded product at 5-km resolution covering the period 1965–2015. This product is compared with the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) dataset, the Climatic Research Unit–University of East Anglia (CRU) dataset, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM/TMPA 3B43 Version 7) dataset and the ERA-Interim Reanalysis. The analysis reveals that TRMM data show the most realistic features. The relative bias index (Rbias) indicates that TRMM data is closer to the observations, mainly over lowlands (mean Rbias of 7%) but have more limitations in reproducing the rainfall variability over the Andes (mean Rbias of −28%). The average RMSE and Rbias of 68.7 and −2.8% of TRMM are comparable with the GPCC (69.8 and 5.7%) and CRU (102.3 and −2.3%) products. This study also focuses on the rainfall inter-annual variability over the study region which experiences floods that have caused high economic losses during extreme El Niño events. Finally, our analysis evaluates the ability of TRMM data to reproduce rainfall events during El Niño years over the study area and the large basins of Esmeraldas and Guayas rivers. The results show that TRMM estimates report reasonable levels of heavy rainfall detection (for the extreme 1998 El Niño event) over the EPSC and specifically towards the center-south of the EPSC (Guayas basin) but present underestimations for the moderate El Niño of 2002–2003 event and the weak 2009–2010 event. Generally, the rainfall seasonal features, quantity and long-term climatology patterns are relatively well estimated by TRMM.

Duran is a coastal city located in the Guayas Estuary region in which 24% of urban sectors suffers from the effects of chronic flooding. This study seeks to assess the causes of Duran’s vulnerability by considering exposure, population sensitivity and adaptive capacity to establish alternatives to reduce its vulnerability to flooding. An operational framework is proposed based on the vulnerability definition of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and applying a census-based Index of Vulnerability, a geographic information system and local knowledge of urban development. A Principal Component and equal weighting analysis were applied as well as a spatial clustering to explore the spatial vulnerability across the city. A total of 34% of the city area is mapped as having high and very high vulnerability, mostly occupied by informal settlements (e.g., 288 hectares). Underlying factors were poor quality housing, lack of city services and low adaptive capacity of the community. However, some government housing programs (e.g., El Recreo), with better housing and adaptive capacity were also highly vulnerable. Limited urban planning governance has led to the overloading of storm water and drainage infrastructure which cause chronic flooding. Understanding the underlying causes of vulnerability is critical in order develop integrated strategies that increase city resilience to climate change.

Urban flooding is a major problem in many coastal cities. The rapidly shifting patterns of land use and demographic increase are making conventional approaches to stormwater management fail. In developing countries such as Ecuador, a lack of monitoring, financial constraints and absence of proper policies exacerbate flooding problems. This work assesses the implementation of two Low Impact Development strategies (LIDs), namely, green streets and rain barrels, as nature-based solutions to mitigate flooding problems. The use of the “Stormwater Management Model” (SWMM) helped to contrast the new approach with the current state of the drainage system, including normal and extreme scenarios. With an implementation of 1.4% (19.5 ha) of the total area with LIDs, the reduction of runoff for short events (200 min) is around 20%, and for extreme events (within 24 h) is around 19% in comparison to the conventional approach. Flooded nodes were reduced to 27% for short events, and to 4% for extreme events. The peak flooding system had a reduction to 22% for short events and 15% for extreme events. These highlights help to increase city resilience, and authorities and stakeholders should engage in climate actions to reduce flood risks complementing drainage operations with nature-based solutions. Moreover, calibrated results in this article serve to increase awareness among municipal authorities regarding the importance of maintaining flooding records to improve modelling results for decision-makings processes.

Urban flooding is a major problem in many coastal cities around the world, mainly caused by factors such as poor urban planning, outdated sewer capacity or high frequent extreme events. In developing countries such as Ecuador, lack of monitoring, financial constraints and absence of proper policies exacerbate flooding problems. The use of the Stormwater Management Model (SWMM) helped to identify zones that are flooded even with a 2-year precipitation event at Duran city. Since there are no flood monitoring stations across the study area, model calibration was performed against unofficial records (people complaints, media photographs, and water marks on walls). Model results fairly agreed with those unofficial record. However, a validation process is not achievable yet due to lack of enough flood data even in flood prone areas. To further increase city resilience, authorities and stakeholders should engage in climate actions to raise flood hazard-risk awareness, monitoring hydro-meteorological factors, complement drainage operations with nature-based solutions, and improve hydrodynamic modelling to develop a flood early warning system for the city.

The first important issue in pesticide assessment for a watershed is the availability of soil and water quality information in the form of charts, maps or records. However, developing countries generally do not have enough historical data. Thus, sampling programs are crucial for the success of the evaluation, although in developing countries they always represent a controversial task between limited available budget and a precise assessment. This paper shows the steps taken to generate soil and water data to be used in a pesticide assessment project for a 34,000 ha watershed in Ecuador, South America. Sampling campaigns are still being run, so the methodology and the first results are shown here.