GEOSS Support for Decision-Making in the Coastal Zone: Managing and Mitigating the Impacts of Human Activities and Natural Hazards in the Coastal Zone

A workshop series organized by the GEO Coastal Zone Community of Practice

Earth Observation Support for Sustainable Tourism in Small Island States
March 9-11, 2011, Puerto Rico

Incomplete DRAFT

Workshop Report

Introduction

This report describes the findings and recommendations of the third workshop in the series of regional workshop organized by the GEO Coastal Zone Community of Practice in partnership with GOOS and GTOS. The overall title of the series is “GEOSS Support for Decision-Making in the Coastal Zone: Managing and Mitigating the Impacts of Human Activities and Natural Hazards in the Coastal Zone.” The third of these regional workshops, “Earth Observation Support for Sustainable Tourism in Small Island States”, was held at the Sheradon Hotel and Spa in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 9-11, 2011. Local organization was provided by the Caribbean Regional Association (CaRA hosted by the University of Puerto Rico. The Workshop program and the list of participants are included in Appendices A and B below. Full documentation of the workshop including the presentations given is available at http://www.czcp.org/workshops/Puerto_Rico.

The CZCP Series of Regional Workshops

The CZCP is organizing a series of regional Workshops titled “GEOSS Support for Decision-Making in the Coastal Zone: Managing and Mitigating the Impacts of Human Activities and Natural Hazards in the Coastal Zone.” The Workshop held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is the third workshop in this series. Previous workshops were held in Athens, Greece (2008) and Cotonou, Benin (2010).

Rational for the Workshop Series

Increases in coastal urban population and land-use practices in coastal catchments and floodplains have led to rapid and accelerating changes in sediment supplies and increases in nutrient, pollutant and pathogen loadings to coastal waters. These pose serious risks to human health and the capacity of ecosystems to support products and services critical to the survival and well being of human populations, in developed and developing nations alike. Risks are increasing and are likely to be compounded by global climate change. High and immediate priorities for GEOSS are improved forecasts of sea-level rise and associated increases in coastal inundation that may be exacerbated by increases in the frequency of extreme weather. Detecting, predicting, assessing and managing the interplay of coastal urbanization and global climate change are critical to the sustainability of healthy ecosystem and the products and services they provide to human populations. Approaches for carrying out these tasks will necessary differ from country to country in view of the multiplicity of tools, policies, measures, and standards employed for monitoring, assessing and managing risk within the coastal zone. Nonetheless, there remains an urgent need to promote integrated, multidisciplinary and multisectoral coastal and ocean management at the regional level in ways that leverage, support, and enhance the capacity of individual coastal States in developing effective coastal zone policies, robust response mechanisms and risk mitigation strategies.

Goals and Objectives of the Workshop Series

Under the auspices of the Group on Earth Observation (GEO), and with a primary focus on the needs of developing nations, the GEO CZCP is conducting this series of regional workshops to provide an end-to-end forum for data providers and users to identify observing system requirements (from observations to modeling) and decision-making tools needed to manage and mitigate the impacts of coastal inundation, storm surge and human activities on coastal communities and ecosystems. As a step toward achieving these goals, this series of workshops aims to:

• Foster communication between land-oriented and sea-oriented communities of scientists, environmental managers, policy makers and other users. Historically, observation efforts within the marine aquatic and terrestrial spheres have been largely separate. A major goal of the CZCP is to aid in establishing an integration of these efforts. A key intent of each regional workshop is to bring together scientists and practitioners from across the region to build synergy and linkages to further strengthen existing programs and initiate new partnerships to enhance coastal zone research capacity and coastal resource management.
• Specify data and information requirements of the Integrated Coastal Area Management (ICAM) community, including the first responder and mitigation communities, the regulatory community, longer-term planners, policy makers, researchers and educators. ICAM user interests represent a spectrum of scales from local to global with information needs from near-real time to multi-decadal.
• Discuss and prioritize data and information gaps. Identify the challenges to filling these gaps, as well as the emerging decision-making approaches and model-based solutions.
• Facilitate linkage of space-based observations, and land and ocean in-situ measurements and models with sustained programs that will provide data and information needed to:
  • Assess changes in susceptibility (risk and resilience) to coastal inundation and storm surge in high risk regions;
  • Assess changes in susceptibility (risk and resilience) to coastal erosion; and
  • Assess and forecast impacts on human health risks, the state of coastal ecosystems and the living resources they support.
• Initiate planning for Coastal Data Assimilation System (CODAS) pilot projects and corresponding Integrated Coastal Decision Support Systems (ICoDSS) for data acquisition, analysis, modeling and integration to support improved decision-making across the land-sea interface in two or more target regions. A key goal of this planning process will be to strengthen the institutional capacities of developing countries and to promote international joint observation and research, through improved surface-based monitoring and increased use of satellite data, and the creation and dissemination of technical and scientific knowledge.
• Promote the end-to-end goals of coastal observing systems by fostering improved linkages between data providers and end-users, and facilitating the transition from data to products to information to knowledge.

Expected Outcome of the Workshop Series

Potential activities and products resulting from the Workshops include:

• Initiation of the COastal Data Assimilation System pilot project (CODAS) and corresponding Integrated Coastal Decision Support System (ICoDSS) are two products.
• Promotion of a better usage of the database of monitoring sites and networks for the Global Terrestrial Observing System (GTOS), i.e. the Terrestrial Ecosystem Monitoring Sites (TEMS) for coastal observing systems through registration of programs and sites.
• Promotion of formal partnerships and linkages among the various programs represented at the Workshops.
• Promote development of land-sea data assimilation schemes, building towards an integrated CODAS proto-type with operational nowcasting & forecasting (short & long term) capabilities to support users.
• Support development of standardized user interface tools (e.g, GIS) and integrated decision support systems for coastal management (e.g., ICoDSS) that can be used for short-term decisions as well as long-term planning

Heritage of the Workshop Series

This series of workshops complements and builds upon other GEO activities, including the GEO Inland and Nearshore Coastal Water Quality Remote Sensing Workshop held March 2007 in Geneva and other workshops that focus on improving the skill of forecasts of coastal inundation and storm surge; here we focus on predicting, managing and mitigating their impacts through more effective coastal zone management.

Goals and Objectives of the Third Workshop

Pre-Workshop Studies

Pre-workshop activities aimed at generating a guide to availability of relevant Earth Observations in the region, including a catalog of observing systems referenced by Applications, Products, Responsible organization, and Organizations engaged in collection and distribution of Earth Observations. The result of the pre-study is available on the workshop web page. An updated version of the pre-study result is include in Appendix C.

Workshop Format

Workshop Format: During the first day, invited key notes in plenary sessions provided guidance and charges for detailed breakout sessions during the second day. The goal of these breakout session was to clarify the user needs and relevant issues, and to identify steps toward developing an implementation plan that would address the user needs in this area, including the development of supporting pilot projects. During the second day, there was the opportunity to present posters, and a dedicated poster session provided time for authors and participants to discuss the posters in more detail. The third day provided ample opportunities to discuss the way forward in plenary sessions.

• Day 1 highlights: Plenary sessions that provide a forum for users to highlights the relevant information needs and for scientists to consider the resulting observing needs and opportunities, summarizing the findings of a pre-workshop effort that provided this user workshop with an initial list of potential phenomena of interest, variables and indicators, and existing observation capabilities, as well as identify the gaps in existing observing/modeling/decision-support systems. Theses plenary session also provided guidance and charges to the breakout groups.
• Day 2 highlights: Breakout sessions, poster session, and a plenary session with reports from the breakout sessions. The breakout groups were tasked with the overall goals to (1) assess the information needs based on a better understanding of the relevant issues, conflicts of interest, and needs; (2) review, refine and advise as to coastal observing system and decision-support system adequacy and needs. The breakout session focused on topcis such as addressing natural hazards in order to increasing the safety of tourism in the Caribbean; increasing benefits for sustainable tourism and reducing impacts on ecosystems; supporting long-term planning that takes into account trends, economic challenges, and climate change; designing the observation systems and services for early warning; monitoring ecosystems, biodiversity, and impacts (pollution); and linking providers and users through decision support systems and organizational actions. These breakout sessions developed the outlines of an observing and decision-support system that will fill the high-priority gaps, setting the stage for focused discussions on the design of the potential pilot projects.
• Day 3 highlights: Plenary session discussing the way forward, developing recommendations; and initiating actions.

Workshop Notes

Here we will summarize the main messages of the presentations. Each key note presenter is asked to provide a short paragraph (not more than half a page) with the key message of the presentation.

Summary of Workshop Findings

Here we will report the main findings of the workshop. Most likely, we will structure these accoring to themes similar to the breakout session topics. All Workshop participants are invited to provide input for this section of the workshop report. The input can include links to material available on-line elsewhere.

Workshop Recommendations

The Participants of the Workshop “Earth Observation Support for Sustainable Tourism in Small Island States in the Caribbean” jointly organized by the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) and the Coastal Zone Community of Practice (CZCP),

Recognizing that

• Sustainable Tourism is a fundamental pillar of development, well-being and economic growth in the Caribbean;
• The regional “Sustainable Tourism Policy” of the Caribbean Tourism Organization provides a framework for advancing sustainable tourism in the member States of that organization;
• Earth observations and related information and services are essential for a sustainable, environmentally sound, safe and attractive tourist industry;

And realizing that

There is a gap between the information needed by, and useful for, stakeholders of tourism, particularly the ends users, and the Earth observation information available by international and national agencies, researchers, and data providers;

In order to bridge the gap between providers and users recommend that

• GEO invites the United Nations World Tourism Organization to become a Participating Organization of GEO;
• The GEO Secretariat asks the GEO Principals in the region to work with relevant Participating Organizations and countries to initiate an intergovernmental dialog with the goal to:
  • encourage GEO membership of the Small Island States;
  • identify the information needs of the governments of the Small Island States;
  • initiate pilot projects;
• Regional organizations of the stakeholders in sustainable tourism consider to create (or use, if it already exists) a platform for a coordinated dialog with GEO and ask the CZCP to support this platform in its dialog with GEO;
• The CZCP considers to establish a web-based information system for Coastal Zone issues complementary to and/or leveraging existing systems;
• A pilot project be initiated to familiarize regional users with GEO facilities (GEO Portal, User Requirement Registry) and to enable feedback on these facilities and participation in developing user services (for example, coastal atlas);
• Arrangements be made for up-to-date presentations on GEOSS and Earth observations and the value for sustainable tourism to the Caribbean Tourism Organization, the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association, and other private organizations.

Appendix

A. Workshop Program

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Friday, March 11, 2011

B. Workshop Participants

C. Workshop Pre-Study: Sustainable Tourism in Small Island States: A Review of Needs for Earth Observation Support

Overview of previous studies and relevant organizations

United Nations studies

The Small Island Developing States Network (SIDSNET) is the global network for small island developing States. This is a service provided by the UN Division for Sustainable Development (DSD), Department of Economic and Social Affairs DESA DESA. The mandate of SIDSnet is to promote and facilitate the efforts of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to implement the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA). Although the BPoA was written in 1994, Chapter 8 of the BPoA addresses tourism resources and may contain material relevant for the CZCP workshop. See also here for a web version.

Some historical information on the implementation of Chapter 8 is available on an older SIDSNET page. A first assessment of the implementation carried out in 1996 is available at a UNEP page. Of interest is also Decision 7/3 of the Seventh Session of the Commission on Sustainable Development of the the UN; see the web page for details. A history of the BPoA review process is available at a International Institute for Sustainable Development page. The results of a 2005 review, the so-called Mauritius Strategy provides more information on the status of the implementation of the BPoA.

A high-level review of the Mauritius Strategy has been conducted in 2010. In preparation of this Mauritius Strategy of Implementation + 5 review, several regional events took place earlier in 2010. The one most relevant for the Workshop, i.e. the Caribbean Regional Meeting, took place in Grenada, 16 and 18 March 2010, and the draft "Outcome statement" is available on the event web page. This statement is of considerable relevance for the CZCP workshop. An Inter-regional Meeting was held in New York, 8 May 2010. Finally, the national and regional assessments were consolidated at the SIDS Day of the eighteenth session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-18). Finally, the High-level Review Meeting took place in New York, 24 - 25 September, 2010, See the MSI-5 web page for a full documentation. The Resolution adopted during this session emphasizes the importance of a premptive approach to natural disasters and the importance of coastal and marine resources for the SIDS.

Regional Intergovernmental Organizations

The Association of Caribbean States is an organisation for consultation, cooperation and concerted action. Its current focus is on Trade, Transport, Sustainable Tourism and Natural Disasters. The ACS organized a conference on Expert Consultation on Operationalization of the Caribbean Sea Commission with the title Building a science-policy interface for ocean governance in the Wider Caribbean. This seems to be relevant to our workshop; see here for details. The pages on Sustainable tourism and natural disasters also contain valuable information.

The 2nd Meeting of Ministers of Tourism of the Greater Caribbean (TMM-2) took place in the City of Barranquilla, Colombia, April 24th, 2009. This conference produced a number of valuable assessment reports available at the meeting web page.

The Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP) of UNEP is also relevant for the Workshop. It focuses around the Cartagena Convention, that is the "Convention for the Protection and Development of the Marine Environment in the Wider Caribbean Region." There are four Regional Activity Centres that might be of interest, i.e.

• CIMAB, Habana, Cuba;
• Institute of Marine Affairs; Chaguaramas, Trinidad
• REMPEITC, Willemstad, Curacao
• SPAW, Saint-Claude - Guadeloupe

Of crucial relevance is the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and information on its activities are available at the CARICOM Secretariat.

The Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (see http://www.caribbeanclimate.bz/ is "the official archive and clearing house for regional climate change data in the Caribbean. The Climate Change Centre coordinates the Caribbean region's response to climate change, working on effective solutions and projects to combat the environmental impacts of climate change and global warming."

Web pages of potential interest

The UN ESA has a page with Information for Decision-Making for Sustainable Development for Caribbean Small Island Developing States with many links to relevant pages; see here.

The World Bank Initiative "National Strategies for Sustainable Development of Caribbean Small Island States - From Vision to Action" descriped at the web page provides some thoughts concerning a vision for the Caribbean.

The UN World Tourism Organization published in 2005 the report Making Tourism Work for Small Island Developing States. See the abstract and contents at this web page.

Relevant publication media

A relevant journal is the Journal Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Networkon JoHLSTE, which is the peer-reviewed, international e-journal of the Hospitality, Leisure, Sport & Tourism Education (JoHLSTE). The journal is published twice a year in the Spring and Autumn and is freely available via its website.

Regionally relevant activities

On July 28-29, 2009, a conference on Turtle Conservation, Ecotourism, and Sustainable Community Development took place at the Univeristy of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. The proceedings of this conference are available here. These proceedings migh help to identify experts concerning ecosystems and ecotourism.

See also Turtle Village Trust, which was aco-organizer of the above conference.

Tourist Organizations

A regional tourist organization is OneCaribbean.org.

The 11th Annual Caribbean Conference on Sustainable Tourism Development was held on May 9 - 12, 2010 in Barbados. The title was "Keeping the Right Balance: Creating Opportunities through a World Class Sustainable Tourism Product. The STC 11 Presentations are on the STC event webpage. STC12 will take place on April 3-6, 2011 in Bermudas.

The Caribbean Alliance For Sustainable Tourism (CAST) is an organization established in 1997 "to promote responsible environmental and social management of natural and heritage resources respectively, within the hotel and tourism sector." In March 2010, CASR signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Confederación de Organizaciones Turísticas de América Latina (COTAL) to the joint support of both institutions for initiatives that promote sustainability of Caribbean tourism industry (see here for more details).

The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), "founded in 1962, represents the entire spectrum of the hospitality industry's private sector including 36 national hotel associations across the Caribbean region".

A major cruise ship association is the the Cruise Lines International Association CLIA). "CLIA is the world’s largest cruise association and is dedicated to the promotion and growth of the cruise industry. CLIA is composed of 25 of the major cruise lines serving North America and is an organization that operates pursuant to an agreement filed with the Federal Maritime Commission under the Shipping Act of 1984 and serves as a non-governmental consultative organization to the International Maritime Organization, an agency of the United Nations."

Geohazards and tourism

Relevant links are:

• http://caribbeanvolcanoes.com/: A page with a lot of information on volcanoes in the island arc of the Lesser Antilles, which might be a core area for the GHCP regional office in the Americas.
• http://www.cdera.org/doccentre/fs_volcanoes.php: The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) is an agency of CARICOM. It is the Caribbean's premier disaster management agency.

References

McElroy, J. L., 2000. Managing Sustainable Tourism in the Small Island Caribbean. Manuscript submitted to J. Ecological Economy. Available as pdf. (Author information: Jerome L. McElroy, Professor of Economics, Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556, jmcelroy@saintmarys.edu).

Goodwin, J., 2008. Sustainable Tourism development in the Caribbean Island Nation-States. Michigan Journal of Public Affairs, 5.

King, J., 2010. Sustainable Tourism Development in the Caribbean. Blog contribution on ehow.com. updated: May 17, 2010. Read the article.

Lewis, A, 2005. Rationalising a Tourism Curriculum for Sustainable Tourism Development in Small Island States: A Stakeholder Perspective. J. of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, 4(2), DOI:10.3794/johlste.42.93 (Author information: Acolla Lewis (alewis@fss.uwi.tt), University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad, West Indies.

Lewis, A., 2006. Stakeholder Informed Tourism Education: Voices from the Caribbean. J. of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism Education, 5(2),DOI:10.3794/johlste.52.120

Lighthouse Foundation, ?, Sustainable tourism and Cruises. Forum. Read the commentary.

Further reading

A. GEO, CoPs, GOOS

• GEO entry page: provides material on the perticipants, organization, and work of GEO. The document library gives access to a number of documents including the 10-Year Implementation Plan for GEOSS, the Strategic Targets, and reports on achievements.
• 2010/11 CoP Brochure: provides an concise overview of the existing GEO Communities of Practice.
• CZCP: provides more background on the CZCP.
• IGOS-P Costal Zone Theme Report: gives an overview of Earth observation requirements for coastal zone management.
• IOCARIBE_GOOS: rationale for IOCARIBE-GOOS.

B. Sustainable Tourism in the Small Developing Island States

• Trends in Sustainable Development – Small Island Developing States : 2010-2011: Issued in support of the five-year review of the Mauritius Strategy of Implementation for the sustainable development of SIDS, the report highlights the vulnerabilities of SIDS and recent trends in their sustainable development. The key areas covered by the report are:
  • climate change
  • disaster management
  • trade and finance
  • tourism
  • energy
  • natural resources
  • social development
  It also provides a visual summary of progress made by SIDS in attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), based on analysis performed by UNDP and ESCAP.
• Building a science-policy interface for ocean governance in the Wider Caribbean: several documents resulting from a workshop of Expert Consultation on Operationalization of the Caribbean Sea Commission of the Association of Caribbean States, which are relevant for the workshop.
• ACS-AEC Tourism: Web page of the Expert Consultation on Operationalization of the Caribbean Sea Commission on sustainable tourism.
• ACS-AEC Natural Disasters: Web page of the Expert Consultation on Operationalization of the Caribbean Sea Commission on natural disasters.
• 2nd Meeting of Ministers of Tourism of the Greater Caribbean: meeting documents included a number of valuable assessment reports.