Search Results (3)

This study presents an economic risk evaluation of buildings in Samoa exposed to extreme sea level (ESL)-driven episodic flooding and permanent inundation from relative sea level (RSL) rise. A spatiotemporal risk analysis framework was applied at the building object level to calculate monetary loss, expressed as the exceedance probability loss (EPL) and average annual loss (AAL). Economic risk was enumerated at national and district levels between the period 2020 and 2140 based on RSL projections for medium confidence Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). Over this century, national AAL for buildings from ESL flooding in 2020 is expected to double by 2100 (USD 47–51 million). Under high emissions scenarios SSP3-7.0 and SSP5-8.5, AAL rates decelerate after 2100 as permanent inundation loss increases. District level risk variability is evident. For example, Tuamasaga on Upolu Island accounted for 44% of national 100-year annual recurrence interval losses, while AAL for Aiga-i-le-Tai and Va’a-o-Fonoti over this century reaches 8% of total district building replacement values. Our model approach has potential future applications to evaluate spatiotemporal risk distribution for a broader range of socioeconomic impacts that may occur beyond directly affected flood inundation areas. Full article

To achieve coral reef resilience under Agenda 2030, island governments need to institutionalise a competent blue workforce to expand their reef resilience initiatives across economic organisations and industries. The ability of island governments to shape new policies for sustainable island development relying on natural capital, such as coral reefs, has been hampered by structural and institutional deficiencies on both sides of the science-policy interface (SPI) at the UN. Using a qualitative research design, this article explores the science-policy interface (SPI) policy paper, Rebuilding Coral Reefs: A Decadal Grand Challenge and the role of this SPI in guiding UN coral reef financing for island states. This article uses the dive industry to investigate the needs of policymakers in island states via a conceptual framework for policy analysis. This article highlights the gaps of the SPI from the perspective of the global south and is beneficial for the islands selected under the Global Coral Reef Investment Plan. The article highlights the results of the SPI to island decision makers, which indicate that, without a policy framework that includes space for industrial policy within UN SPI, island governments will continue to fall into financial traps that constrain their efforts in operationalising their blue workforce. The study concludes that interlinked SDGs, such as SDG 9 and SDG 8, which focus on linking industrial innovation and infrastructure with decent work, as well as SDG 16 and 14.7, provide SIDS institutions with integrated policy approaches capable of bridging the divides between the scientific community, the diving industry, and island governments and that this needs to be further explored at all levels. Full article

Capacity building efforts in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are indispensable for the achievement of both individual and collective ocean-related 2030 agenda priorities for sustainable development. Knowledge of the individual capacity building and research infrastructure requirements in SIDS is necessary for national and international efforts to be effective in supporting SIDS to address nationally-identified sustainable development priorities. Here, we present an assessment of human resources and institutional capacities in SIDS United Nations (UN) Member States to help formulate and implement durable, relevant, and effective capacity development responses to the most urgent marine issues of concern for SIDS. The assessment highlights that there is only limited, if any, up-to-date information publicly available on human resources and research capacities in SIDS. A reasonable course of action in the future should, therefore, be the collection and compilation of data on educational, institutional, and human resources, as well as research capacities and infrastructures in SIDS into a publicly available database. This database, supported by continued, long-term international, national, and regional collaborations, will lay the foundation to provide accurate and up-to-date information on research capacities and requirements in SIDS, thereby informing strategic science and policy targets towards achieving the UN sustainable development goals (SDGs) within the next decade. Full article