Deputy Project Manager of the Coastal Risk Assessment and Management Programme, Allison Wiggins (centre), explaining to the consultants how aspects of the coastal plan would work. (S.Medford/BGIS)

The Coastal Zone Management Unit, through its Coastal Risk Assessment and Management Programme, is working assiduously to resolve a number of issues affecting Barbados’ coastlines.

The department is currently preparing to update its draft Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Plan and amend existing legislation.  To this end, consultants from Spain have been brought on board to assist in these efforts.

Deputy Project Manager of the Programme, Allison Wiggins, who led a tour of a number of beaches on Thursday, said that it was designed to familiarize consultants with the areas on which they would be focusing.

“What we’re doing here is bringing them to particular spots where there are issues which we are trying to resolve.  The plan is to ensure that we incorporate disaster management and climate change adaptation in our planning along the coastline,” she explained.

Ms. Wiggins stated that the ICZM plan would be an important tool for decision makers.

“The Coastal Risk Assessment and Management Programme, which started in 2011, basically tried to find scientific information related to the coastline. We did things like the baseline studies, which included things like Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), water quality analysis, and a whole set of scientific studies. We would put those studies into our National Coastal Risk Information and Planning Platform which helps us to look at risks along the coastline. So, we want to pull that into our planning now to make our ICZM plan as robust as possible,” the Deputy Project Manager outlined.

The nine-month consultancy is expected to end in February 2020.

sharifa.medford@barbados.gov.bb

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