CONFERENCE REPORT
Disaster Risk Reduction: the Role of the Land Management Professionals
6th June 2008
Part of the University of West Indies 60th anniversary and
Dept. of Surveying and Land Information 25th anniversary
A workshop to examine critically the current roles of surveying in the effective and efficient management of the natural disaster risk reduction strategies of the Caribbean, seeking best practices, identifying issues, and proposing a roadmap towards the effective use of surveying tools and knowledge in the disaster risk reduction.
Supported by the Commonwealth Foundation, The Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction, UWI, the Institute of Surveyors of Trinidad & Tobago, and The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
Enquiries: Dr. Jacob Opadeyi, Department of Surveying and Land Information, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad. Tel: 1-868-662-2002 ext 2108; Fax: 1-868-663-7383 Email: jacob.opadeyi@sta.uwi.edu
The all-day workshop was held on June 6th 2008 at the Social Sciences Lounge, UWI, St. Augustine The opening ceremony was chaired by Dr. Charisse Griffith-Charles. During the opening remarks Mr. W. Anstey Scott, President of the Atlantic Region of CASLE), defined risk management and identified strategies for achieving it. Mr. Brian Waldy, Secretary-General CASLE, highlighted the Commonwealth mandate.
Mr. Waldy stressed that issues identified by CASLE could be raised at the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting scheduled for Trinidad next year. Dr. Opadeyi, Head of the Department of Surveying and Land Information and the president of CASLE, offered the Vote of Thanks to several organizations including CF, CDRR, CASLE, DSLI, RICS and ODPM. He informed the gathering that the UWI’s Centre for Disaster Risk Reduction was established as recently as last year. He also stated that his department was developing a programme to address disaster risk reduction. He identified a need to get Commonwealth governments interested in the issues surrounding risk reduction and saw this as an indirect attempt at gaining the interest of Caribbean governments. CDERA (Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency) was awaiting a report of the workshop to identify areas of possible involvement by the agency.
Dr. Opadeyi made the first presentation on, “Disaster Risk Reduction: The Roles of the Land Professionals”. He commenced with an overview of disaster experiences of CDERA members. These occurred due to environmental factors such as location and topography as well as socioeconomic factors such as demography and economics. He also explored the nature of the impacts in terms of environmental and socio-economic factors. He defined Disaster Risk Reduction and saw the need to use the definition to determine what role the Caribbean land professionals can play. He explored in