FACTOR ANALYSIS OF THE CLIMATIC VULNERABILITY INDEX IN THE STATE OF MINAS GERAIS: A STUDY ON THE INDEX FACTORS FOR VULNERABILITY IN THE MUNICIPALITIES

Abstract

Social, environmental, and economic indicators are frequently used to characterize a specific sector of interest. Understanding these indicators has significant impacts on the socioeconomic development of regions. This study aims to interpret the variables of the Climatic Vulnerability Index in the Brazilian State of Minas Gerais (IMVC) through factor analysis, with a view to gaining a better understanding of climatic vulnerabilities in its municipalities. The variables were obtained from data available on the Clima Gerais website (https://clima-gerais.meioambiente.mg.gov.br/) and standardized to ensure an effective analysis. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to assess the adequacy of the original IMVC model building on the variables and theoretical constructs of the index. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was used to identify latent factors that explain most of the variance in the data, grouping variables with high correlations and making interpretation possible. The results indicate that EFA, through principal component analyses, was able to reduce data dimensionality to four components, explaining a considerable percentage of the total data variance upon an appropriate adjustment to the model, suggesting that the extracted components effectively capture the structure of the original data.