USGS engaged with U.S. and international natural hazards resilience specialists at the Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership (SCDRP) Annual Meeting

By St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center January 27, 2023

Drs. Donya Frank-Gilchrist and Legna Torres-García of the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center attended the SCDRP annual meeting to engage with stakeholders and explore potential partnerships across Caribbean nations and territories to further enhance USGS natural hazards research.

four people stand at a table draped in a green USGS tablecloth with several resources on display — From left to right: Meaghan Emory, Dr. Donya Frank-Gilchrist, Dr. Legna Torres-García, and Emmanuel Maldonado-Gonzalez (contracted to the USGS) engaged with stakeholders and explored potential partnerships across Caribbean nations and territories to further enhance USGS natural hazards research at the 2023 SCDRP annual meeting in Miami, Florida.

The meeting, held in Miami, Florida, January 24-25, 2023, focused on the theme of, “Responding to the Urgency: Working Together to Build Effective Inclusive Resilience.”

The Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership (SCDRP) is a coalition of public and private organizations that collectively seeks to strengthen community resilience and support rapid disaster recovery from storms and disasters. The Partnership is the only regional collaboration network for professionals in emergency management, climate adaptation, and disaster preparedness, recovery, and resilience specifically focused on the U.S. Southeast and Caribbean.

The USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center (SPCMSC) sponsored this year’s meeting, and Dr. Donya Frank-Gilchrist of SPCMSC moderated the session, “Approaches to Resilience from the International Caribbean.” This session was co-sponsored by the USGS & the US Department of State. The panelists featured were from the National Emergency Management Agency of Bahamas, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, the University of the West Indies, and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre. SPCMSC also hosted a sponsor table at the meeting at which USGS employees could engage with stakeholders to expand our network of natural hazards researchers and resilience practitioners across the southeast and Caribbean regions. These interactions helped to achieve the goals of the project, Stakeholder Engagement for Natural Hazards Investigations in the Caribbean (SENHIC) and showcase the data, tools, and resources USGS has available to help communities bolster resilience to natural hazards.

While attending the meeting, the team also met with the Caribbean Coastal Ocean Observing System (CariCOOS) to share USGS resources in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean, discuss the potential for data sharing, learn more about their capabilities, and explore the potential for future collaborations.

A woman speaks at a podium on stage in front of a crowd of people with a presentation about resilience in the Caribbean — Dr. Donya-Frank Gilchrist of the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center facilitated a session on "Approaches to Resilience from the International Caribbean" at the 2023 Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership (SCDRP) Annual Meeting in Miami, Florida. Panelists included Jeremy Collymore of the University of West Indies, Barbados; Dr. Colin Young of the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (5 C’s), Belize; Rasheed Pinder of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), Barbados; and Gayle Moncur of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), The Bahamas.

Read what else is new at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.

A woman speaks at a podium on stage in front of a crowd of people with a presentation about USGS natural hazards research — Dr. Donya-Frank Gilchrist presenting a brief overview of the role of the U.S. Geological Survey in Natural Hazards science at the 2023 SCDRP Annual Meeting.