Van Ettinger is tasked with operating the Jet Ski outfitted with survey equipment, including a GPS to measure the local position of the Jet Ski and an echo sounder which measures the ocean depth.
The survey is part of a proactive disaster management approach called "Hazard and Vulnerability Assessment Project" being pursued by disaster management organisations within the region with assistance from a number of development organisations.
The aim is to examine hazards posed by inland and coastal flooding across the country. The hazards under consideration involve flash floods, coastal storm surges and tsunamis. The information derived from this survey and other research that has been done will lead to the development of a Disaster Plan and an early warning system.
Professor Zoran Vojnovic of the hydrological institute UNESCO-IHE in Delft, the Netherlands, explained that the current 4.9-million-euro project being financed by the European Union and executed on 11 other islands in the region included building computer models that would enable them to predict the effect of storm surges, tsunamis, and inland flooding. The information will be fed into a computer model.
"So, for example, if a hurricane X comes to the island and we know there is going to be a storm surge of six feet, for example, then we can put it in the system and that map can exactly calculate which coastal areas will be threatened and which should be evacuated if the need is there," Professor Vojnovic said.
He further noted that at the same time the survey was being made, NASA was taking satellite pictures of the island that would be connected to the Bathymetric Survey for precision.
The models will be made by UNESCO-IHE in Delft, in the Netherlands. Once completed, the models will be brought back to the island in a few months and a number of consultations will be held to discuss the results and the measures to be taken in the event of a disaster.
Once this pilot programme is concluded, there is much interest in the results from disaster management organisations in other islands, including the British Virgin Islands and Anguilla.
Source: http://www.thedailyherald.com/islands/1-islands-news/13420-study-of-ocean-bed-to-conclude-today.html
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