A Disability-Inclusive Climate Vulnerability Index: Regional Patterns and Policy Implications in Chile

People with disabilities face disproportionate climate-related risks, yet disability is rarely incorporated into composite climate vulnerability indices. To date, no existing index—at any geographic scale—incorporates disability as a primary dimension. This study develops the Disability-Inclusive Climate Vulnerability (DICLIV) Index for Chile’s 16 regions, integrating four dimensions: disability and dependency vulnerability (D1), climate hazards and exposure (D2), adaptive capacity (D3), and resilience and response capacity (D4). Seventeen indicators were selected from Chilean regional data sources. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to assess the robustness of the index and the contribution of each dimension to regional rankings. Findings reveal a distinct south-central vulnerability cluster—Ñuble (0.641), Biobío (0.600), and the Metropolitan Region (0.568)—driven by high disability prevalence, climate hazard exposure, and limited adaptive capacity. Atacama (0.365) ranked least vulnerable, despite its harsh desert environment, primarily due to comparatively low climate hazard exposure scores. Sensitivity analyses showed high agreement across alternative model specifications, although excluding D1 resulted in Biobío replacing Ñuble as the highest-ranked region and additional ranking shifts across several regions. The DICLIV is the first composite index to treat disability as a core dimension, supporting disability-inclusive climate adaptation aligned with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Sendai Framework.