INTEC and Civil Defense hold talks on resilience in disaster risk management
During the event, they held a panel discussion that addressed comprehensive risk management and a roadmap for the country's sustainable development. They also presented the Climate Resilience Index for Housing and Settlements (IRECLIVA).
SANTO DOMINGO. - The Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC), together with the National Emergency Commission (CNE) and the Civil defense, developed the High-Level Dialogue: Let's Talk About Resilience, a space in which specialists addressed risk management in a comprehensive manner and outlined a roadmap toward sustainable development in the country.
The initiative, funded by Global Support and Development (GSD) was held as part of national activities for Disaster Prevention and Emergency Response Day, which is commemorated in the country every September 22, commemorating different events that have hit the Dominican Republic, such as Hurricane George in 1998.
The opening ceremony was led by INTEC's interim rector, Aliett Ortega, who explained that part of the dialogue's objective is to generate technical, academic, and institutional exchange among key stakeholders in the country and the region, aimed at strengthening national capacities for disaster risk management as an essential component of sustainable development.
"We are gathered here because we are united by the conviction that climate change constitutes an existential crisis and is the greatest challenge we must face as a 21st-century society. To achieve this, we must sit down for these dialogues and talk about risk management," Ortega said.
He also emphasized that the country faces multiple natural threats, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, and droughts, which directly impact the safety, well-being, and sustainability of its communities. Therefore, he stated that it is essential that comprehensive disaster risk management become a fundamental pillar for sustainable development.
Disaster risk management: a challenge for sustainable development
In addition to the interim rector of INTEC, the panel also included Delfín Rodríguez, deputy director and head of Operations for Civil Defense; Jean Suriel, communicator and meteorological analyst; and Antonio Torres, professor at the University of Havana and professor of the doctoral program in Basic and Environmental Sciences at INTEC, as well as a specialist in risk management. The panel was moderated by research professor Solhanlle Bonilla, director of Research and Environmental Economics at the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.
During the panel discussion, Ortega emphasized that the national challenge is overcoming institutional fragmentation. "I think the main weakness is reaching an agreement. We all want to work and seek solutions, but we lack the capacity to reach an agreement." He agreed with the other panelists that strengthening alliances between the state, academia, and citizens is essential to building resilience against the effects of climate change and natural disasters.
He also highlighted the need for other actors to assume the investment required to implement solutions: "Innovation, research, and solutions emerge from academia. But we need both the business community and the public sector to assume the cost of implementation," he said.
Communicator Jean Suriel emphasized the need to understand the past in order to react to present and future risks. "First, we need to know the enemy we face so that we can then react as well."
He also recalled that recent events such as the torrential rains of November 4, 2022, and November 18, 2023, set a historical precedent that "could be repeated at any time because we are facing a risk that these meteorological phenomena could become increasingly extreme."
Torres, INTEC professor, emphasized the importance of having comprehensive prevention tools. He explained that "we must find a way to develop tools that achieve precisely that holistic approach that combines threats with vulnerabilities and adaptive capacities." He emphasized that civic education is crucial, "because people are often reckless and drive their car into a flood and suddenly get lost in the water."
Representing Civil Defense, Rodríguez praised the progress made in risk reduction from an institutional perspective. "With regard to Civil Defense, we see that, in relation to climate change, resilience has been addressed in projects to relocate communities from vulnerable areas to safer locations, as was the case with La Barquita and Domingo Savio." He also highlighted the effectiveness of the action plans activated following alerts from the Emergency Operations Center, such as the preventive deployment carried out during Hurricane Fiona.
Suriel also highlighted the technological advances that currently strengthen risk management in the country. "It's great that we have specialized meteorological satellites and can predict the potential for flooding in some areas by 5, 4, 3, or even 1 minute." However, he warned that prevention depends not only on technical organizations but also on the public, because "a population that doesn't listen, then the risk of disasters is greater."
About the Climate Resilience Index of Housing and Settlements (IRECLIVA)
Previously, Yanelba Abreu, a PhD candidate in Basic and Environmental Sciences at INTEC and project manager for Strengthening Disaster Risk Management within Civil Defense, also presented the Climate Resilience Index for Housing and Settlements (IRECLIVA), a pioneering technical and social tool in the Dominican Republic. Its objective is to determine resilience, the way to adapt and recover from the impacts of climate change, the effects of earthquakes, floods, landslides, and other natural phenomena.
The climate resilience index is the result of INTEC's research project "Development of an Artificial Intelligence-Based Simulator for Decision-Making in Disaster and Climate Emergency Management Scenarios in Human Settlements." Through this project, the university aims to leverage its experience with global and regional risks to scale risk analysis to the local level, explained INTEC research professor Ulises Jauregui-Haza, leader of the project.