ABSTRACT
The present contribution highlights the nexus between climate, transport infrastructure/operations, and sustainable trade and tourism in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). To this end, an assessment of the potential marine inundation and other operational disruptions from CV & C of the coastal international airports and seaports of the Caribbean nation of Saint Lucia is presented, under different climate scenarios, together with an estimation of the beach erosion risk, as a “proxy” of indirect climatic impacts on transportation demand. The results show that Saint Lucia’s seaports and coastal airports, which provide critical access for all external trade and tourism, are at high and increasing risk of climate-driven coastal flooding from as early as the 2030s; operational disruptions are also expected, in particular due to rising temperatures and extreme heat/humidity. However, these projections do not include effects of tropical storms/hurricanes and may, therefore, be considered as conservative. The results also show that beaches in Saint Lucia are vulnerable to extreme sea level events and storm waves under climate change, with potential implications for coastal tourism and related transportation demand. The results of the above assessment for one SIDS, Saint Lucia, illustrate the urgent and important need for the development of adaptation measures and resilience building, informed by targeted risk assessments at local scale, for all SIDS and other vulnerable coastal/island economies that face similar challenges.
