The Department of Environment & Coastal Resources is pleased to announce the completion of the Caribsave Climate Change Risk Atlas (CCCRA) Phase One document that was done in the Turks Caicos Islands, as part of a regional study to develop an atlas showing the impact that Climate change can have on the Caribbean Islands in the future.
This document was developed as a way to give an evidenced based inter-sectoral view of the vulnerabilities and the adaptations that can be made to circumvent the affect that climate change can have on the major economy of the Turks and Caicos Islands tourism.
The main basis of this project is to give a detailed model of climate change for each of the countries selected. The projections for this document were done utilizing three scenarios.
The CCCRA Phase one, which was funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID); will provide the Turks and Caicos Islands with valuable information on the following areas:
• Sea Level Rise and Storm Surge Impacts on Coastal Infrastructure and Settlements
• Community Livelihoods
• Gender
• Poverty and Development
• Agriculture and Food Security
• Energy
• Water Quality & Availability
• Comprehensive Disaster Management
• Human Health
• Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity and Fisheries
The climate change model was able to demonstrate on large scale the affects of global climate dynamic. To attain this data a combination of Global Climate Models (GCM) and a downscaled Regional Climate Model (RCM) was used to investigate the climatic changes for the TCI.
RCMs were also used to simulate the climate at a finer spatial scale over a smaller area allowing the projections of the GCMs to be downscaled attaining a clearer physical representation of the climate of the area being investigated.
The field study sites include notable resorts, ports and an airport runway that are at less than 6 m above sea level. Beach area losses in Turks and Caicos were also calculated for 0.5 m, 1 m, 2 m and 3 m scenario (Table 1). At a 0.5 m SLR scenario, more than half of the beach area will be lost in Grand Turk West Shore (53%) and Historic Cockburn Town (65%). All (100%) of the beach area will be lost in Historic Cockburn Town under a 2 m SLR scenario, with all (100%) of the beach area in Grand Turk Cruise Centre and Grand Turk West Shore under a 3 m SLR scenario.
It is important to note that the critical beach assets would be affected much earlier than the SLR induced erosion damages to tourism infrastructure due to SLR-induced coastal erosion. Indeed, if erosion is damaging tourism infrastructure, it means that the beach will have essentially disappeared.
The assessment also looked at other sectors such as Health, Tourism, Social sector, Agriculture, land allocation and development planning, disaster management and much more.
The Department of Disaster Management in collaboration with the DECR worked with members of Caribsave that came to carryout site visits and data collection. Data were retrieved through site visits, questionnaires, focus groups and historical data.
The Department strongly encourage all members of the public to read at a minimum, the summary document and maybe this would serve as a springboard towards TCI starting to take the issue of Climate Change more seriously.
The finalized document can be found on the DECR website: www.environment.tc.
