Saint Lucia

With the approach of the 2024 Atlantic Hurricane Season commencing on June 1st, the National Emergency Management Advisory Committee (NEMAC) needs to publish a final list of approved Emergency Shelters for households that need to evacuate flood-prone areas. The NEMAC Chairperson drafted a set of criteria to guide the Selection Subcommittee members in their decision-making. A key requirement is that a candidate facility should not be prone to the impacts of flooding and landslide events which are likely to occur within a 200 m radius from the Emergency Shelter’s point of location. The Selection Subcommittee is challenged with finding a scientific and objective method for determining whether or not the criteria has been met by the applicants. The focus of the research was to utilise FOSS GIS applications along with raster and vector data to determine which building facilities should be disqualified and then identify optimal locations for Emergency Shelters as a replacement for the disqualified candidate sites, based on various criteria including distance away from hazard risk areas, proximity to a motorable roadway and building size.