Water, Water Everywhere

The Caribbean and northern coastal Brazil face severe impacts from climate change, particularly from sea-level rise. This paper analyses current land use and development policies in three Caribbean locations and one at the mouth of the Amazon River to determine if these policies are sufficient to protect economic, natural, and population resources based on current projections of urbanization and sea-level rise. Where policies are not deemed sufficient, the authors will address the question of how land use and infrastructure policies could be adjusted to most cost-effectively mitigate the negative impacts of climate change on the economies and urban populations.

Keywords: sea-level rise, land use planning, coastal development, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Pará, Brazil