TIREX
ANR OURAGANS TIREX
Sharing learning from post-disaster research for strengthening individual and collective response and adaptation capacities in the context of climate change (Leeward Islands - 2017 hurricane season)
(2018-2021)
- Coordinator: Frédéric Léone, Professor in Geography, GRED (University of Montpellier 3-IRD)
- LIENSs’ researchers involved:
Virginie DUVAT, Professor in Geography
Valentin PILLET, PhD in Geography
Natacha VOLTO, Study engineer, image analysis
- External partnership:
Scientific partners: BUMR GRED University Paul Valéry Montpellier 3-IRD, UMR LGP 8591 University Paris 1-CNRS, UMR 8053 LC2S University of West Indies-CNRS, EA 4539 LARGE University of the French Antilles, Météo-France Direction Interrégionale Antilles-Guyane, CCR
Other partners: representatives of the concerned French State services, and of the local administrations of Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélemy islands, IUNC-France (Overseas and Ecosystems programs) - Funding:
ANR, AAP OURAGANS 2017
- Keywords : Tropical cyclones, Antilles, coastal systems, risk management, nature-based solutions, adaptation to climate change
Presentation and objectives of the project
The TIREX project includes 5 work packages built on an interdisciplinary approach involving geography, geomorphology, spatial analysis and remote sensing techniques, political sciences, information and communication, sociology, scientific mediation, climate modelling and climatology. Work Package 1, dedicated to the reconstruction of Trajectories of Vulnerability, addresses the drivers and mechanisms generating coastal risk and disaster. The main Impacts of tropical cyclones and related physical processes are addressed in Work Package 2, based on numerical modelling, field observations, mapping and statistical analysis. Beach monitoring allows assessing the readjustment of coastal eco-morphological systems in different contexts (from natural to highly-modified by human activities). Work Package 3 consists in analysing Crisis management and territorial reconstruction , based on investigations conducted with local populations and institutions, so as to highlight both the levers and barriers for improved management and reconstruction. It more specifically focuses on individual and collective responses to the cyclone-induced crisis, so as to assess the resilience of the social and institutional components of affected territories in the short and long terms. Work Package 4 is more operational, consisting in supporting local to national stakeholders in promoting Improved risk management and reconstruction. It thus a llows the dissemination of results in study islands.
LIENSs is more specifically involved in Work Packages 1, 2 and 4. LIENSs’ researchers work on Saint-Martin, Saint-Barthélemy, the British Virgin Islands (Tortola, Anegada) and Anguilla.
Expected results
LIENSs will more specifically generate the following results
TWP 1 - Reconstruction of the Trajectories of Vulnerability over the 1950-2017 period (coord. GRED)
- Analysis of the political-institutional, juridical, demographic and socio-spatial drivers of vulnerability, and of their evolution over the period of analysis
- Assessment of the contribution of environmental drivers to vulnerability and to changes in vulnerability over the period of analysis
WP 2 - Impacts on and resilience of coastal environments (coord. LIENSs & LARGE)
- Assessment of tropical cyclones’ impacts on eco-morphological coastal systems and of these systems’ readjustement at different timescales
- Design of a typology of coastal systems, based on the consideration of the drivers of these systems’ responses
- Figure 1. Impacts of September 2017 tropical cyclones on Saint-Martin Island beaches.
- These cyclones caused a marked retreat of the stability line (vegetation line or outer limit of human constructions, depending on the setting), especially on the highly exposed north-eastern coast of the island. However, the cyclonic waves caused important sediment deposition both on some beaches and inland. On the north-eastern coast of the island, some beaches underwent a 1.60 m upward growth in places.
- Figure 2. Impacts of September 2017 tropical cyclones on the barrier beach system of Gibb’s Bay.
- The cyclonic waves eroded and flooded this barrier beach, transferring important sediment volumes from the barrier beach to the lagoon. As a result, this barrier beach migrated landward.
WP 4 - Lessons learnt and transfer to concerned stakeholders (coord. LC2S & GRED)
- ➢ Elaboration of a guide aimed at supporting territorial reconstruction in the context of climate change (coord. LGP & LIENSs)
Publications
Articles in scientific journals:
- Duvat V., Pillet V., Volto N., Krien Y., Cécé R., Bernard D., 2019. High human influence on beach response to tropical cyclones in small islands: Saint-Martin Island, Lesser Antilles. Geomorphology 325: 70-91.
- Pillet V., Duvat V., Krien Y., Cécé R., submitted. Contribution of human disturbances to the variability of the impacts of tropical cyclones Irma, José and Maria (September 2017) on St. Bartholomew beaches. Ocean & Coastal Management.
Communications dans des colloques :
- Pillet V., Duvat V.K.E., Post-cyclone readjustment of beaches on Saint-Barthélemy Island (Lesser Antilles). Littoral 2018, Octobre 2018, Leeuwareden, Netherlands.
- Pillet V., Duvat V.K.E., Impacts des cyclones Irma, José et Maria (Septembre 2017) sur les systèmes sédimentaires côtiers de l’île de Saint-Barthélemy. Géorisques, Janvier 2018, Montpellier, France