Denise Dennis reports on the launch of the first Caribbean Disaster Risk Atlas, held at UWI Mona campus, in Jamaica earlier this week.
The US$510,000 initiative is funded through the World Bank and is being managed by the Seismic Research Unit at UWI’s St Augustine campus in Trinidad and the Mona GeoInformatics Institute.
The University of the West Indies’ (UWI’s) Institute for Sustainable Development on Monday unveiled the Caribbean Disaster Risk Atlas, intended to enhance the region’s ability to cope with natural events, such as earthquakes and floods.
The atlas, officially launched at the Mona Visitors’ Lodge in Kingston, is to enable analysis to guard against losses in Jamaica, as elsewhere in the region, and is to be used in the development of comprehensive risk management strategies
The atlas, which currently contains spatial data on risk from floods and earthquakes in Jamaica, Barbados and Grenada — the islands where it was piloted — is to be made available to technical experts as well as general users.
A workshop and symposium on the atlas is to be held today and tomorrow at the Sunset Jamaica Grande in Ocho Rios.
Read more in the Jamaican Observer