• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 08 / 28 / 2011

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2011.08.27 - 17:15:10 / radiorebelde.icrt.cu. Havana, Cuba.- Part of the Cuban surface (2,32 percent) could be covered by water by 2050 as a consequence of climate change, a report published by Granma newspaper reveals.

Research about coastal dangers and vulnerability carried out by specialists from 16 Cuban institutions and bodies, yielded that by 2050, 2,550 square kilometers of the country's surface will be submerged as a result of the rise in the sea level.

The study highlights that in addition to the increase of the sea level, swells caused by strong hurricanes are the most immidiate climate change risk for the island.

The first stages of a project for assessing the impact of climate change and extreme meteorological events on coastal settlements and their vulnerability for 2050 and 2100 were led by the Physical Planning Institute (IPF) and its provincial and municipal offices across the country.

Carlos M. Rodriguez Otero, M.S., of the IPF’s research department told Granma if adaptation measures are not taken early enough, a total of 122 coastal settlements could be fully or partially damaged by 2050.

Rodriguez Otero said 15 out of them will have fully disappeared by that year, and six will do it half a century later.

The expert mentioned among endangered sites, beach areas in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Artemisa, Mayabeque, Villa Clara, Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camagüey, and Las Tunas.

The most exposed area is up to one meter high above the sea level and 1,000 meters inland, behind the coast line, Rodriguez Otero said.

The expert told Granma the study will allow Cuba to take early actions to lessen the vulnerabilities of threatened coastal settlements.

However, he noted that the research also revealed that some towns that were devastated by the 2008 hurricanes were rebuilt in the same areas, which constitutes a risk in the face of similar or more intense tropical cyclone organisms.(ACN)