Abstract
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) increasingly face natural hazards that overwhelm their capacity to generate and share spatial-information to reduce human–economic losses. Under such circumstances, the emergency mapping team (EMT) enables a common operational picture of the impacted communities. This paper aims to identify user requirements for EMT operations in the Caribbean and, based on those findings, improve the level of preparedness to deliver information-services that contribute to disaster risk management in the region. The results are built upon a case-study and a survey targeted for technical personnel responsible for emergency mapping in three Caribbean states: the Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia and Sint Maarten. Our findings revealed five user requirements for EMT operations: institutional arrangements, implementation of a Cloud-based spatial data infrastructure, linking community stakeholders, partnerships and capacity building. This study provides the foundation for future EMT developments in the Caribbean region and in others SIDS with similar settings in the world.
Highlights
IntroductionThe Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face potential challenges in achieving sustainable development, especially due to their social and economic characteristics and vulnerability to natural and human-made disasters (United Nations 2014)
Survey results suggest that emergency mapping team (EMT) structure and functions are similar across countries, which are mainly ledstructure by the government agencies
Our results showed that EMT products and services have the potential to increase resilience and disaster risk management (DRM) effectiveness in SDIS, by providing quick access to relevant spatial information and maps for damage and risk assessment, and emergency planning and preparedness
Summary
The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) face potential challenges in achieving sustainable development, especially due to their social and economic characteristics and vulnerability to natural and human-made disasters (United Nations 2014). SIDS future annual losses related to natural disasters will represent almost 20 per cent of their total social expenditure [1]. The Caribbean is one of the most disaster-prone regions in the world. Just in the last 10 years, Caribbean SIDS have been impacted by 139 natural disasters [2]. The 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria, as well as the 2010 magnitude 7.0 earthquake in Haiti, are clear examples of how disasters heavily affected the well-being and economic development of the Caribbean countries [3,4]
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