6
ABSTRACT Road projects connect sectors with high productivity, tourist and agricultural potentials in a country, so it is important to plan the place where these projects carried out. In the 2016 and 2017 Annual Operational Plan of the provincial government of Guayas, Ecuador, it is detected that a single project was developed in certain cantons of the rural area of the province of Guayas, which shows the deficiencies in the coverage of road projects in the province. Identifying the coverage of road projects in the rural area of the 25 cantons of the Guayas province between 2016 and 2017, was essential to know the sectors where there is a deficiency or excess of road projects. In this study, the central nodes, service level and connectivity level of each canton of the Guayas province were located and thematic maps were generated where a visualization of the current situation was obtained that served to reach conclusions that resolved the research questions raised, giving suggestions for planning future projects. It is important to clarify that the analysis was only carried out in two years, so there is no information on road coverage in previous years. However, the analysis gave an idea of road connectivity over the years that used as a reference to understand the problems encountered in provincial road planning. With the results obtained in the service level, connectivity level and with the analysis of the thematic maps generated, alternatives to road planning were proposed to fill the existing road gaps in different sectors of the rural area of the Guayas province. Keywords Road Coverage, Road Connectivity, Central Nodes, Connection Arches, Engel Index.
