Eight residents participate in climate change project – Union Island

Fri Mar 15, 2013

by Stanton Gomes

During the period February 28 to March 8, residents of Union Island were engaged in Participatory 3 Dimensional Modeling. This made St Vincent and the Grenadines the second country in the Caribbean to benefit from this community based climate change project.{{more}}

Participatory 3D Modeling (P3DM) is a community based climate change initiative. It integrates local knowledge with data on elevation of the land and sea depth to create a 3 dimensional scaled map with places and historical sites depicted by use of points, lines and areas. The data from the map is then extracted, digitized and plotted. Changes to the land face can be pointed out using the data on the model which will assist in climate change adaptation and strategic planning.

The project is supervised in Union Island by the Sustainable Grenadines Inc. a non-profit community group, and sponsored by the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Co-operation (CTA) and also the Nature Conservancy — at the water’s edge (TNC-AWE).

A brief opening ceremony was held at the Ashton Resource Centre on February 28 to explain the scope and purpose of the project. In attendance were the administrative officer of Union Island; a representative from CARICOM Community Climate Change, Belize; Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism; Physical Planning Unit; National Parks Authority; Ministry of National Mobilisation; Grenada fund for conservation; The Grenada Informer newspaper; Tobago Cays marine park; persons from the community and students and teachers from the Union Island secondary school.

The modelling exercise started with the tracing of contour lines to pieces of cardboard. The administrative officer, Sherma Adams, took the opportunity to start the tracing exercise, reminiscing on her Geography days at school. In total, 39 layers of cardboard, representing sea depth of 40 metres to an elevation of 300 metres above sea level were cut out and layered with paste upon each other to create a 3D model. Union Island was modelled to the scale 1:4,000. Geography teacher from the secondary school Abdon Whyte supervised his students, as they built the model over the first three days of the project.

Speaking with Whyte about the P3DM project, he said that it was a familiar area for him, having recently completed his Bachelor’s degree in Geo Information Systems in Mexico. He further stated “for the students, this project will give them a better understanding of mapwork, especially scales, direction, contours, elevations and a better understanding of the geological make-up of Union Island and its surroundings. This exercise will greatly assist them for the upcoming CXC examinations.”

On day four, the replica of Union Island was painted in white to accommodate the population process. Over 50 persons from the community came in to identify their houses, cultural sites, mountains, ponds, wells, schools, roads, footpaths and other land and sea locations. On Wednesday, March 6th, the model was painted in all shades of colour representing water, grasslands; numerous points in the form of pins and labeled paper were evident on the map.

During the process, persons got a first hand look at the geographical make-up of their island, the areas that had been destroyed and the risks in event of a hurricane and sea level rise.

Saville Lewis, island supervisor of the CWSA, stated that “the model gives a clear picture of the road paths and historical sites, which is helpful for tourism”. Roseman Adams stated that it showed him the strengths of the island, areas that can be used as safe shelter in event of a tsunami. He also highlighted the fact that fishermen can have an idea of the sea-bed depths, which can be used to alternate fishing locations.

The Nature Conservancy is one of the major sponsors of the P3DM project, Lynnette Roth, who is a data manager, joined the project to conduct the digitizing phase. In this phase, the model with all the points populated will be converted to photos, which will then be filled with coordinates, using GIS software.

The finished product can be used for planning purposes, In the area of fishing, climate change, e.g. ways to adapt to sea level rise due to climate change, can be found. The project came to an end on Friday, March 8th with a brief closing ceremony and handing over of the model to the community. It will be stored at the Revenue Office.

The first P3DM project for the Caribbean was done in Tobago last year; Grenada is expected to benefit from this project later this year.