The CARIWIG Project

Managers and policy makers in the Caribbean require knowledge of the likely impacts and hazards arising from climate change that are specific to their geographical location and that are relevant to their planning time-horizons (e.g. the short term, 2030s, or the longer term, 2080s). However, current climate model projections of the weather are of limited use in this respect due to scale and bias issues. Sophisticated down-scaling providing locally relevant unbiased climate change information remains sporadic. Clear guidance for managers and policy makers for the utilization of such information is also limited.

The CARIWIG project will address these issues through the provision of locally relevant information on the weather impacts of climate change for a range of time horizons, training for stakeholder technical staff in the use of such weather information, the development of support networks within the region and development of partnerships with UK research institutes specializing in the  management of a range of hazards and impacts.

A web service will be developed to provide this service through the adaptation and provision of leading weather-generator models from the EARWIG  and the UKCIP09 climate knowledge systems. These weather generator models will be used to provide locally relevant weather projections based on the best available observed data and climate model outputs for the region .

Preliminary use of the new web service will be for impacts studies and training programs with key stakeholders in the region. This will inform management decisions and inform the development of policy to address specific local hazards and impacts of climate change. In addition exchange visits to specialist institutions will help build regional capacity in climate compatible development, and help develop and strengthen research and regional support networks. Research findings, best practice and the web service will be further disseminated through workshops with key stakeholders and the provision of technical training for stakeholder staff.

The project is funded by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN ) and work will be carried out in partnership  with the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (Belize), University of East Anglia (UK), University of the West Indies (Jamaica) and the Institute of Meteorology (Cuba)

*Text retrieved from the CARIWIG website.

Selected project reports and products

• Timo Baur (2013): Identification and documentation of currently available tools, data and products that could be provided through a web portal if possible. Deliverable, Caribbean Climate Change Centre and Climate & Development Knowledge Network (CDKN)

Workshop Presentations 2013

• Aiden Burton (2013): CARIWIG Project Overview
  
• Phil James (2013): CARIWIG – Proposed Web Services and Portal
  
• Arnoldo Bezanilla (2013): CARIWIG Regional Climate Models
• Phil James and Colin Harpham (2013): The CARIWIG Weather Generator (WG)
  
• Tannecia Stephenson (2013): CARIWIG Tropical Storm Modelling
  
• Ottis Joslyn (2013): CARIWIG Caribbean Weather Information Generator
  
• Clare Goodess (2013): CARIWIG Decision making and background to the Case Studies
  

Workshop Presentations 2015 – Barbados

• Abel Centella et. al. (2015): CARiDRO Introduction 
  
• Phil James (2015): CARIWIG Portal- Using the Portal
  
• Phil James (2015): CARIWIG Portal Introduction
  
• n/a (2015): SMASH (storm tool) Introduction
  
• Phil James and Colin Harpham (2015): Weather Generator Tool Introduction 

Case Study Presentations

• Roger Rivero Jr. et. al. (2015): Assessment of Climate Change Impacts on Agriculture on Cayo District, Belize
• Coastal Zone Management Unit (2015): Barbados Coastal Protection Case Study 
  
• Diana Ruiz (2015): Dengue Fever in the Belize District Case Study 
• Abel Centella et. al. (2015): Drought Case Studies using the Caribbean Assessment of Regional DROught (CARiDRO) tool 
• Junior A. Mathurin & Dr. Yannick Cesses (2015): Effect of climate change on surface water resource (St Lucia) 
• Raquel Chun (2015): Flood risk and Urban Development in Belize City Case Study 
• Arpita Mandal et. al (2015): Scenarios of discharge for the Hope River Watershed in response to variable tropical cyclone characteristics Case Study 
• Dale Rankine et. al (2015): Sweet Potato Case Study