Abstract
As urban risks associated with a changing climate continue to intensify, it is increasingly important to broaden our understanding of climate vulnerabilities in coastal cities and human adaptation to climate-related hazards. Coastal cities in small island developing states in the Caribbean stand to be among the most climate-impacted. This paper explores vulnerability to coastal hazards (sea-level rise, storm surges and flooding) in Barbados’ capital city and its urban corridor—Greater Bridgetown. Specifically, it is a qualitative survey of climate change vulnerabilities and human adaptation in the study domain that is underpinned by three research questions: 1) In what ways is Greater Bridgetown vulnerable to coastal hazards? 2) What are the human dimensions of this vulnerability? and 3) What are the associated human adaptations? We apply a four-component adaptive urban governance framework to explore the role of the city’s historical development, urban morphology, national-level institutions and relevant government and other stakeholder initiatives in shaping, reducing and/or increasing vulnerability to coastal hazards. The paper relates primarily to the governance dimension of the risk reduction framework articulated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. In totality, a case is presented that highlights Greater Bridgetown’s capacity for coastal/urban resilience, but which cannot be maximized without institutional prioritization of vulnerability, increased stakeholder “buy-in” and participation, along with significant investment in adaptation and the protection of valuable coastal infrastructure. The findings are of relevance to human adaptation within coastal cities of small island developing states.
Highlights
Climate change is expected to have a global impact, but it is well understood among climate change scientists that coastal cities in small island developing states (SIDS) in the Caribbean stand to be among the most climate-impacted in the world (Mycoo and Donovan, 2017)
Bridgetown vulnerable to coastal hazards? 2) What are the human dimensions of this vulnerability? and 3) What are the associated human adaptations? A four-component adaptive urban governance framework is applied to explore the role of the city’s historical development, urban morphology, nationallevel institutions and relevant government and other stakeholder initiatives in shaping, reducing and/or increasing vulnerability to coastal hazards
We found that flooding in Barbados as a whole, and in Bridgetown is attributable to anthropogenic pressures such as built development arising from urbanization as well as rising sea-levels and storm surges resulting from climate change
Summary
Climate change is expected to have a global impact, but it is well understood among climate change scientists that coastal cities in small island developing states (SIDS) in the Caribbean stand to be among the most climate-impacted in the world (Mycoo and Donovan, 2017). At the century scale and if adaptation is not pursued, the vast majority of low-lying islands, coasts and communities will encounter substantial risk from coastal hazards regardless of their level of development (Oppenheimer et al, 2019). 48 indicated that “even a small increase in mean sea level can significantly augment the frequency and intensity of flooding This is because SLR elevates the platform for storm surges, tides, and waves, and because there is a log-linear relationship between a flood’s height and its occurrence interval.”. Apart from high urban densities, the level of urbanization is very high in coastal areas in the Caribbean given that the population is attracted to flat lands, which generally cost less to build on when compared with hilly areas (Mycoo and Donovan, 2017; Mycoo, 2018)
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