Índice de Contaminación Ambiental debido a la actividad petrolera en la Amazonía Ecuatoriana

Abstract

The oil industry is the main source of income for the Ecuadorian State, but its development over the years has caused damage to nature which aren’t counted in an integral way; consequently the environmental remediation is limited to the monetary approach and not to environmental liabilities. Therefore, this paper seeks to estimate an Environmental Pollution index by using statistical tools and graphically represent contaminated areas that have greater environmental vulnerability and greater need for environmental remediation. Since in Ecuador, most of the oil activities are carried out in the Amazon region, the project focuses on analyzing the parishes that have environmental involvement according to data recorded by the Program of Social and Environmental Remediation (PRAS). The index estimation is done is by using the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Polychromatic Data Analysis (PDA). The indexes obtained are shown on a Geographic Information System (GIS) offering a better understanding of the components that explain the variables of contamination.