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The ERI continuously works on the development of its programs and operations through several funded projects. The Institute currently has three actively funded projects being implemented over the next 2–4 years. There are also two other projects that the Institute is involved in through partnership with regional universities under the European Union's EDULINK program. The Institute also recently completed a research project through the Marine Managed Area Science Program of Conservation International.
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Assessing the potential impacts of climate change on Belize’s water resources |
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 The ERI has partnered with the Water Center for the Humid Tropics of Latin America and the Caribbean (CATHALAC) and CARIBSAVE to assess the potential impacts of climate change on Belize's water resources. The project is expected to last 15 months and its goal is to utilize modelling to assess the potential impacts of climate change on the supply and demand for water and water quality in Belize, across different climate change and land use change scenarios.
Specific objectives of the project include:
- Determine the current demand for and supply of water (i.e. water balance) in Belize’s major and minor watersheds
- Assess future supply and demand, against the range of future land use scenarios and future climate change scenarios
- Examine how water quality might change as a result of climate change and land use change scenarios
- Determine which areas are highly vulnerable to climate change, and to what magnitude
- Support the development of national-level policies on adaptation to climate change
- Develop sustained capacity within Belizean institutions to iteratively model / assess climate change impacts on water resources and in other sectors
- Contribute to the regional body of knowledge on the potential impacts of climate change
Research Questions:
The overall focus of this project is to determine how climate change will likely impact the quality and quantity of Belize’s water resources, using Belize’s major and minor hydrographic basins (i.e. watersheds) as the unit of study. While downscaled climate change scenario data are available for Belize (e.g. PRECIS data available through the efforts of the CCCCC), the potential impacts of climate change on Belize’s water resources has not been studied in any great detail. This study proposes to examine those impacts by answering the following specific research questions:
- What is the current demand for and supply of water in Belize’s major and minor watersheds, and how is such supply and demand likely to change across the range of future land use change scenarios and climate change scenarios?
- Based on such land use change scenarios and climate change scenarios, which areas are highly vulnerable to climate change and to what magnitude?
See the brochure for more information...
Other Projects:
In September 2010 the ERI was awarded a five year grant by the Oak Foundation for a project entitled: Developing National Research and Monitoring Capacity for the Management of Belize's Marine Protected Areas and Natural Resources..... Read More
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