CARIBBEAN-UWI researchers secure funds to study nature-based coastal solutions

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Researchers at the University of the West Indies (UWI) have secured a US$300,000 grant to research designing sustainable, nature-based coastal solutions.

UWI said that the funds by Future Earth would fund research in Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaican, and the United States and are aimed at generating a universal approach to the design specification of nature-based solutions, making them more widely applicable.

Future Earth is a global network of scientists, researchers, and innovators collaborating for a more sustainable planet. The group works to accelerate transformations to global sustainability through research and innovation while focusing on a systems-based approach.

“Traditional hard engineering coastal structures like seawalls, dikes, and breakwaters can be valuable for mitigating coastal hazards, but these solutions also have several challenges. They are often not adaptable to climate changes, can be harmful to the environment, negatively impact the cultural and socio-economic aspects of communities, are hardly aesthetically pleasing, and require significant resources for maintenance during their lifetime,” UWI said.

It said that the researchers involved in the “Engineering the Design of Nature-Based Solutions for Sustainable Development” project are convinced that nature-based solutions can mitigate several of these challenges.

Principal researcher and lecturer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the St. Augustine campus of the UWI, Dr. Deborah Villarroel-Lamb, said, “Complex engineering alone is rarely ever the optimal solution to a coastal problem; ecosystems must be considered as part of the whole solution.

“Our Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are already facing the challenges associated with climate change, including increased coastal erosion and flooding. We must embrace nature-based solutions for coastal hazard mitigation as they benefit from maintaining the aesthetic appeal of tourism-driven coastal infrastructure. Still, more importantly, they can give climate-resilient answers.

“We need a universal approach to designing these nature-based solutions to render them economically viable and adaptable specifically for Caribbean SIDS. We are prepared to pursue the required research and are extremely grateful for this grant from Future Earth to facilitate this much-needed step in the right direction,” Villarroel-Lamb said.

Pro Vice-Chancellor of the UWI’s Office of Global Affairs, Sandra Maynard, said “Future Earth is precisely the type of partner that we are always excited to work with given their commitment to innovation, sustainable development, and strengthening their research linkages in the Caribbean.

“While accessing grant funding, particularly in the context of the UWI’s current ‘revenue revolution’ is necessary, the impact of this partnership and its support of essential research and working together for the global good is the most significant factor.

“Helping to broker these connections between agencies that have the funding and our world-class experts who are on the ground doing the research in sustainable solutions is a critical part of our strategic agenda as the Office of Global Affairs,” she added.

Throughout the project, researchers’ work will include:

• I am generating comprehensive datasets from physical and numerical modeling of beach vegetation, coral reefs, and mangrove systems.
• Collating and processing wave, current, water level, and wind data.
• I am simulating existing and projected hydrodynamics in coastal areas.

The data will be transformed into meaningful knowledge that can be used by stakeholders directly involved in co-designing coastal solutions and related decision-making. The project, which will prioritize stakeholder engagement and an interdisciplinary approach, is also expected to create an interdisciplinary national working group on developing nature-based solutions for coastal erosion in SIDS.

The project is financially supported in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation through Future Earth.

The grant provides US $300,000 in funding over two years.