The NBS-ENGROSSED (Nature-Based Solutions – Engineered for Sustainable Development) Project is a 2-year research initiative, funded by the Future Earth’s Program for Early-stage Grants Advancing Sustainability Science (PEGASuS) grant program.
Understanding the susceptibility of coastal zones in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) (such as those in the Caribbean) to sea level rise and storm surges, and the unique social, cultural and economic importance of these areas, the research aims to address these challenges from an engineering perspective while actively
Our approach
No Column Title – 195 Our approach is collaborative and transdisciplinary – the Project Team itself is diverse, with our researchers having backgrounds in Coastal Engineering, Natural Sciences, Geomatics Engineering, Human Geography, Economics and Development Policy. Our stakeholders and collaborators include practitioners, policymakers, civil society, academia and the private sector across the fields of climate change, engineering, fisheries, natural resource management, coastal zone management, higher education, sustainable development, tourism, planning, disaster risk reduction and more. Further, our research spans the Caribbean region – an aspect we consider critical to advancing the uptake and implementation of sustainable Nature-based Solutions within the region. No Section Title – 201 No Column Title – 202
Our main goal
No Column Title – 204 The overarching goal of this project is to generate a more universal approach to the design specification of nature-based solutions in the Caribbean. To achieve this, the project team will be undertaking laboratory and field data collection, as well as stakeholder engagement exercises, all of which have already begun. Our laboratory work will take place in Trinidad at the University of the West Indies’ coastal engineering laboratory as well as at a collaborating US-based or UK-based university, where we will model the coastal ecosystems involved in wave attenuation and beach erosion control. Field data collection is currently taking place in Manzanilla in Trinidad and at the cusp of starting in Tobago, and involves collection of video, wind, water level and wave data. Stakeholder engagement has already begun – most recently, the team conducted a workshop on “Effective Implementation of Nature-Based Solutions at the SRI Congress in Panama City, Panama. No Section Title – 206 No Column Title – 208 Check out our next posts to learn more about Nature-Based Solutions and the start of data collection in the field!
