| Popis: |
Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly vulnerable to sea-level rise posed by climate change. Negril, a small city on Jamaica’s west coast, is a popular Caribbean tourist destination contributing about 5.5% to the national GDP. In particular, Long Bay, a seven-mile resort transect and Negril’s densest and low-lying area, has been losing beach at between 1 and 2 m/year while making its entire tourism industry highly vulnerable. Since adaptation and its success vary by contexts, places, and time; understanding a system’s current vulnerability is essential before any adaptation action. However, limited information on local climatic impacts hinders identifying the vulnerability and urban planning approaches to facilitate climate change adaptation. Thus, after conducting 16 interviews with planners, environmentalists and professionals in Jamaica along with observation and a GPS survey, this study identifies and maps the typology of Long Bay’s built environment vulnerable to climate change by using urban morphology as an investigating tool. This chapter argues that Long Bay’s current and proposed adaptation planning actions primarily consider the immediate and most crucial climatic impacts but overlooks interrelated and complex problems and local adaptive capacity. Despite much potential, the lack of collaboration between development actors and locals in the adaptation decision-making process often increases the vulnerability and adaptation challenges of Negril. |
