CAST Sustainability Series Webinar: Climate Early Warning Information for Caribbean Tourism
The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association is proud to offer exclusively to our members the fifth course in our Sustainability Webinar Series, provided by our strategic partner OBM International (OBMI). These webinars will be focused on addressing the vital issue of sustainability in the Caribbean.
Ongoing severe drought with water shortages persisting through the 2015-6 tourism season can cause damage and losses expected to be similar to the record-breaking regional drought of 2009-2010. This webinar will inform our members of the early-warning information provided by CIMH to help hoteliers and tourism policy-makers improve planning and operations.
Learning Objectives:
- To familiarize attendees with the relevant variations in climate and its impact across the Caribbean
- To introduce attendees to the suite of climate information products offered by the CIMH
- To begin strategizing for the development of a Tourism Early Warning Information System across Climate Timescales (EWISACTs).
Speakers
Dr. Roché Mahon
Dr. Roché Mahon is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the CIMH. A social scientist with a background in Disaster Risk Management (DRM) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), she is part of a regional team of climatologists, meteorologists and hydrologists designing, developing and delivering climate products and services to six climate sensitive sectors in 16 Caribbean countries. A core focus of that work is establishing an Early Warning Information System across Climate Timescales (EWISACTs) for tourism.
Dr. Cédric VAN MEERBEECK
Dr. Cédric VAN MEERBEECK is a Climatologist at the CIMH and a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies. His work aims at building climate capacity in the Caribbean through research, product development and training. He is credited for coordinating the Caribbean Regional Climate Outlook Forum (CariCOF), an innovative regional stakeholder platform for climate early warning.
Ms. Shelly-Ann Cox
Ms. Shelly-Ann Cox is a Research Associate at the CIMH. Her main task is the development of the Climate Impacts Database (CID). She is also involved in the production of the monthly Drought Bulletin. Most recently, Shelly-Ann has been working on the development of a Caribbean Coral Reef Watch Bulletin prototype which uses sea surface temperatures (SSTs) to provide coral bleaching alerts. Shelly-Ann’s hope is that her research contributions will support a Caribbean resilient to climate risks.