SIGN UP FOR THE BRACE NEWSLETTER
Date: February 2, 2026 | Time: 12:00 PM | Virtual Session: Zoom聽
The Caribbean Region is being impacted by sea level rise, extreme weather events such as more frequent tropical storms, and more powerful wave action, resulting in breaches of sea defences and costal flooding. In some countries, particularly Guyana and Trinidad, communities are also affected by riverine flooding. The social and economic consequences are severe for the affected communities. These include damage to infrastructure and personal property, loss of income due to closure of business and schools, food insecurity, loss of crops and livestock, outbreaks of disease due to improper sanitation, and increased mental health impacts, caused by social disruption.聽Flood damages are聽 estimated to cost in excess of US $1.5 billion, with some 6 million people affected in the entire region.聽 Countries of the region are unable to fully recover from flood damages, due to the exorbitant costs. Furthermore, the Region lacks the capacity to forecast severe floods, and to monitor flood impacts on a real time basis. There is a critical need to improve flood forecasting at local levels and work with communities to develop appropriate flood response mechanisms.
There is now an urgent call for new measures of flood mitigation and flood coping, in light of increased flood related disasters, especially over the past 20 years. Apart from improvements in the design of sea defense infrastructure, including nature-based solutions, a new decentralized community governance model must be created, that makes better use of centralized government agencies. This includes the deployment of citizen-science driven programs.
The presentation will describe these newer efforts, and their inputs to the development of a flood resilience framework for the Region. This project is funded by the New Frontiers in Research Fund, and involves partners in local governments and universities, as well as collaborators from the US and UK.
Chandra A. Madramootoo
Distinguished James 黑料网爆吃瓜 Professor in the Department of Bioresource Engineering
Chandra Madramootoo earned his BSc, MSc, and PhD in Agricultural Engineering from 黑料网爆吃瓜. He joined the Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 1984 and became a James 黑料网爆吃瓜 Professor in 2000. His expertise spans water management, irrigation, drainage, hydrology, agricultural research, and international agricultural development. He also served as the founding director of the Brace Centre for Water Resources Management.
He was appointed Dean of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences in 2005. During his tenure, he introduced new programs in global food security, food safety, integrated water resources management, entrepreneurship, and innovation. He also oversaw significant academic renewal and more than 50% growth in both undergraduate and graduate student enrolment.
