Cuba assesses climate hazard, vulnerability and risk studies

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 16 (ACN) New methodological guidelines on hazard, vulnerability and risk studies were presented by Cuban specialists at the 15th National Meeting of the Risk Assessment Group in Cuba, which concludes today in Havana.

One of them is related to Floods due to Heavy Rainfall, whose presentation was in charge of Master of Science Jorge Olivera Acosta, from the Geomatics Group of the Institute of Geophysics and Astronomy, specialists from the latter informed the Cuban News Agency.

They added that the other has to do with strong winds in the specific case of Havana, which was detailed by Claudia Cruz Lorenzo, an expert of the National PVR Group, a process that includes time estimates of destructive events, exposure and damage index.

PhD. Maritza Garcia Garcia, president of the Environment Agency, called attention to the need to generalize them and apply them with the highest possible quality in order to contribute to the elaboration of disaster reduction plans, territorial planning and the design of economic and social development policies.

The 15th National Meeting of the Risk Assessment Group in Cuba is being held with funding from Euroclima, the European Union's emblematic program on environmental sustainability and climate change with Latin America, and the International Coastal Resilience and AdaptHabana Projects.

According to Fernando Hiraldo, resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Cuba, it envisages three levels of implementation: to have the necessary information, to strengthen the capacities of key actors in Havana and to establish a link between adaptation to climate change and development planning.

It is supported by the Green Climate Fund and implemented by UNDP Cuba in partnership with the Environment Agency of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment.