Abstract
In the past decades, the Caribbean economy has transformed to rely primarily on tourism with a vast amount of infrastructure dedicated to this sector. At the same time, the region is subject to repeated crises in the form of extreme weather events that are becoming more frequent, deadly, and costly. Damages to buildings and infrastructure (or the material stocks) from storms disrupt the local economy by an immediate decline in tourists and loss of critical services. In Antigua and Barbuda (A&B), tourism contributes 80% to the GDP and is a major driver for adding new material stocks to support the industry. This research analyzes A&B’s material stocks (MSs) in buildings (aggregates, timber, concrete, and steel) using geographic information systems (GIS) with physical parameters such as building size and footprint, material intensity, and the number of floors. In 2004, the total MSs of buildings was estimated at 4.7 million tonnes (mt), equivalent to 58.5 tonnes per capita, with the share of non-metallic minerals to be highest (2.9 mt), followed by aggregates (1.2 mt), steel (0.44 mt), and timber (0.18 mt). Under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) 2 meter (m) sea level rise scenario, an estimated 4% of the island’s total MSs would be exposed. The tourism sector would disproportionately experience the greatest exposure of 19% of its MSs. By linking stocks to services, our research contributes to the understanding of the complexities between the environmental and economic vulnerability of island systems, and the need for better infrastructure planning as part of resilience building.
Highlights
As economies develop, they stimulate the demand for essential services that are provided by the built environment in the production and consumption of goods and services, viewed as “the material basis of societal well-being” [1]
Material extraction and imports are required to an extent for improving wellbeing and supporting the economy, and the inflows required for stock expansion to meet growing societal and economic demands is considered a characteristic of development [14,70]
Our results show that the importance of tourism to A&B’s economy is physically reflected in its high share of nearly 20% of the country’s material stocks and brings to the forefront several otherwise obscured resource efficiency challenges
Summary
They stimulate the demand for essential services that are provided by the built environment ( referred to as “material stocks”) in the production and consumption of goods and services, viewed as “the material basis of societal well-being” [1]. The larger the stocks, the greater the flows required to maintain and reproduce these stocks, creating a feedback loop that has been termed as the “material–stock–flow–service nexus” (ibid.). This process of organizing and reproducing material stocks and flows by society is referred to as “social metabolism” [2]. Focusing on a small island state in the Caribbean, this research provides evidence on the extent to which the nation’s built environment is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Utilizing the state-of-the-art spatially explicit material stock accounting (MSA), we highlight the economic impacts on Antigua and Barbuda’s (A&B) tourism industry under a 1 m and 2 m sea level rise (SLR) scenario. Sea level rise (SLR) is an imminent threat to small island developing states (SIDSs) as 26% of their land area is 5 m or less above sea level, equating to roughly 20 million people (or 30% of the SIDS population) living within these high-risk areas [7]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
