In support of this initiative, Dr. Donya Frank-Gilchrist and staff from the USGS St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center are leading an effort to connect with natural hazards experts and stakeholders across the Caribbean to build relationships with international counterparts, learn about natural hazards of primary concern, find out about existing mitigation and adaptation efforts, share USGS resources where applicable, and explore potential areas of future collaboration on regional-scale natural hazards. This knowledge will help the team develop a network that will allow USGS to discuss and initiate collaborative scientific efforts focused on natural hazards and disaster risk reduction. These efforts support the Office of the Vice President’s initiative: U.S.-Caribbean Partnership to Address the Climate Crisis 2030 (PACC 2030).

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The Stakeholder Engagement for Natural Hazards Investigations in the Caribbean (SENHIC) project was recently featured in the White House Fact Sheet providing updates on PACC 2030: FACT SHEET: Vice President Harris Announces New Initiatives to Strengthen U.S.-Caribbean Partnership | The White House. Also highlighted in the fact sheet is the panel discussion moderated by Dr. Frank-Gilchrist that the SENHIC team co-sponsored with the U.S. Department of State at the Southeast and Caribbean Disaster Resilience Partnership Meeting on Approaches to Resilience from the International Caribbean featuring disaster emergency experts from the National Emergency Management Agency of The Bahamas, the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, the University of the West Indies, and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre.  

By constructing a database of local experts to lay the groundwork for future collaborations, the SENHIC team aims to develop a framework for collaborating with international partners on natural hazards science across the Caribbean region. Collaborative investigations on regional-scale hazards such as coastal storms, flooding, sea level rise, freshwater scarcity, earthquakes, droughts, and coral reef degradation will help USGS better understand these physical processes and develop capabilities to predict hazard impacts, which could reduce loss of life and property, as well as increase resilience across the Caribbean. Other participating U.S. agencies include the USGS Office of International Programs, USGS Risk Community of Practice, and The U.S. Department of State.

Learn more about these efforts: www.usgs.gov/senhic.