Water Resources Management in the Piura Region: Territorial Assessment of Dynamic Water Vulnerability

Water vulnerability in Piura, northern Peru, is shaped by structural, climatic and governance factors. Surface water from the Chira, Huancabamba and Piura basins is stored and conveyed through major reservoirs (Poechos and San Lorenzo) and canals (Daniel Escobar, Miguel Checa), while service and storage infrastructure is denser on the coast than in the highlands. This study adapts and operationalizes Escribano’s multidimensional scarcity framework—originally developed for the Gulf of Guinea—into a provincial-scale water-vulnerability index for Piura. Structural, climatic-exposure and institutional-capacity indicators from official statistics are min–max normalized to 0–1, aggregated into dimension indices as arithmetic means, and combined with equal weights. All indicators, normalization procedures and aggregation rules are documented, and the resulting indices are mapped with GIS to reveal intra-regional disparities. Findings show that highland provinces such as Ayabaca and Morropón exhibit higher composite vulnerability than coastal provinces, due to persistent poverty, predominantly rural settlement patterns and weaker governance capacity. Some coastal provinces, notably Paita and Sechura, also display elevated vulnerability, whereas Piura and Sullana score lower despite higher demand. Overall, vulnerability appears to be driven more by socio-institutional asymmetries than by physical availability, providing a transparent screening tool for adaptive, territorial water governance.