Climate change has become one of the most important topics in each country’s government agendas. The current effects demand quicker actions in order to decrease the speed at which the global warming and climate is changing, which are commonly seen in global agreements to reduce pollution. However, the main changes to face and mitigate such phenomena depends on each country´s decision and not on global agreements as the causes are continent-wide although the effects and magnitudes may be local. One of the key components for an effective adaption and mitigation is the role that the population have over national decisions. For this reason, the level of awareness and knowledge about what is occurring in their surroundings vital, thus the importance of a correct information broadcast and education. For the aforementioned reasons, the current study compares the recent perception of a well-educated Ecuadorean community regarding the climate change worldwide and in Ecuador with the scientific evidence and historical facts, and how it affects its vulnerability to the climate change effects.

Oil palm cultivation in Ecuador is important for the agricultural sector. As a result of it, the country generates sources of employment in some of the most vulnerable zones; it contributes 0.89% of the gross domestic product and 4.35% of the agricultural gross domestic product. In 2017, a value of USD $252 million was generated by exports, and palm contributed 4.53% of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP). It is estimated that 125,000 hectares of palm were lost in the Republic of Ecuador due to Red Ring Disease (RRD) and specifically Bud Rot (BR). The current study aimed to generate an early detection of BR and RRD in oil palm. Image acquisition has been performed using Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) with Red, Green, and Blue (RGB) cannons, and multispectral cameras, in study areas with and without the presence of the given disease. Hereby, we proposed two phases. In phase A, a drone flight has been conducted for processing and georeferencing. This allowed to obtain an orthomosaic that serves as input for obtaining several vegetation indices of the healthy crop. The data and products obtained from this phase served as a baseline to perform comparisons with plantations affected by BR and RRD and to differentiate the palm varieties that are used by palm growers. In phase B, the same process has been applied three times with an interval of 15 days in an affected plot, in order to identify the symptoms and the progress of them. A validation for the diseases detection has been performed in the field, by taking Global Positioning System (GPS) points of the palms that presented symptoms of BR and RRD, through direct observation by field experts. The inputs obtained in each monitoring allowed to analyze the spatial behavior of the diseases. The values of the vegetation indices obtained from Phase A and B aimed to establish the differences between healthy and diseased palms, with the purpose of generating the baseline of early responses of BR and RRD conditions. However, the best vegetation index to detect the BR was the Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index (VARI).

El botadero de basura a cielo abierto de la ciudad de Portoviejo se encuentra en etapa de cierre técnico y en este existen desechos de origen doméstico e industrial. Estos desechos pueden generar contaminación por los diversos elementos químicos tóxicos que contienen. El objetivo de este trabajo fue caracterizar los suelos mediante parámetros físicos y químicos como pH, humedad, conductividad eléctrica, Residuo Seco Evaporado (RSE), Residuo Seco Calcinado (RSC), densidad real y aparente y medir Cr (VI), Ni, Br y Fe para proponer una zonificación de posible propagación de los contaminantes, con relación a las curvas de lixiviación. Se procedió a analizar varias técnicas de muestreo, en cuanto a factibilidad y aplicabilidad a la zona de estudio, por ello se empleó metodología propuesta por la Norma Técnica Ambiental Ecuatoriana, la Secretaría de Medio Ambiente de México y la propuesta basada en la publicación de Investigación de la Contaminación de Suelos del Gobierno Vasco de España, se optó por utilizar esta última, que dio como resultado un total de 20 muestras en la zona de estudio. La caracterización fisicoquímica del suelo permitió obtener información de sus propiedades, las mismas que sirvieron como insumo para la elaboración de mapas de distribución espacial, con la finalidad de aplicar algebra de mapas, en función de la variación de estas propiedades, para la determinación de dos zonas, donde, se identificó mayor y menor vulnerabilidad de contaminación en cuanto a la movilidad de estos elementos. Los valores mostrados por el pH y conductividad eléctrica determinaron que son suelos que se comportan de manera neutral y ligeramente alcalino, y suelos significativamente salinos. El porcentaje de humedad obtenido en cada uno de los extractos determinó suelos franco arenosos. Como resultado se tuvo que la mayor concentración de los elementos medidos está orientada al suroccidente del botadero, y tras analizar la relación entre la zonificación y lixiviación, se pudo determinar cómo se encuentra la movilidad de estos elementos, donde se debe prestar especial atención a la zona vulnerable que presenta curvas de lixiviación crecientes.

Open dumps are a global problem due to their scant planning studies. In Ecuador, many of the dumps are of this type, operating for several years, as in the case of the open dump of Portoviejo, which is in its technical closure stage. The current study determined the physical-chemical characterization of the soils around the dump, and the concentration in aqueous extracts of Chromium (Cr (VI)), Nickel (Ni) and Iron (Fe). Therefore, a methodology for the estimation of total, soluble and fixed elements based on the theory of maximums and minimum through leaching curves have been proposed. The results have been compared with the permissible concentration limits of the Ecuadorian Regulation where Ni presents serious enrichment. Finally, the spatial distribution of the soluble elements have been performed in order to relate to the processes of mobility and availability in the soil, this let know that soils with possible contamination problems are oriented to the southern part of the dump towards the city of Portoviejo and could possibly be causing pollution in that area.

Cocoa cultivation is one of the sectors that most contributes to Ecuador’s GDP. The aim of this study is to determine the Land-Use Conflict (UC) for cocoa in 71 cities on the coast of Ecuador. Photointerpretation has been applied to locate the crop and geospatial modeling has been used to analyze Land Use Capacity (LUC) criteria, agroecological requirements and LUC at 1:5,000. Of the total study surface area, 4.65% is occupied by cocoa crops and of this value 66.03% is in adequate use (AU) and 33.97% in LUC, and the category of UC over lightly used is the most frequent with 17.25% of the total surface in LUC. In the coastal region, the province of Guayas has the lowest LUC in contrast to Los Rios; the predominant LUC for the crop is Class III 34.32%. The findings show that the LUC of cocoa has a low concordance with the national Agroecological Zoning (AZ), since this model considers the crop in natural conditions, the main limiting factor is the vegetative wet period and does not take into account whether the crop is present in the territory. The use of national AZ information to establish crops could limit their production, since it has been demonstrated that there are cultivated areas that are not in conflict and that are exploited by farmers. This study is replicable to other crops and scalable to any area.