The Dominican Republic is particularly exposed to catastrophic weather events. Additionally, the country is already experiencing the effects of climate change with the increased frequency and intensity of extreme climatic events. As a sign of the impact, the country has experienced hurricanes that have caused damages estimated at 1.2 billion dollars. These phenomena, which have been increasing in intensity since 2021, have caused damage to crops, infrastructure, tourism, and have regrettably resulted in loss of life.

The project supports the Emergency Operations Center (COE), the National Council on Climate Change and Clean Development Mechanism (CNCCMDL) and the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development (MEPyD) in the design of the framework for a Multi-Threat Early Warning System (EWS); development of the Risk and Vulnerability towards Emergencies Atlas (RVEA) and Strengthening of the “COE Alert” mobile application.

The project’s aim is to reduce the vulnerability and risk of the Dominican Republic to multiple threats (e.g. flooding, fires, landslides, etc.) based on effective and timely information, improving its evidence-based decision-making process and its effective communication to the population.

The implementation of the EWS will directly benefit the most populated cities, which represent approximately 4.9 million people or 45.3% of the total population of 10.7 million of the Dominican Republic. The development of an RVEA will bring direct benefits to the population of Santo Domingo, Santiago and the National District equivalent around the third part of the country or the 33.33% of the population.

The enhancement of the “COE-Alert” system will potentially benefit the population with cell phone access, which amounts to approximately 9.74 million people.

The effects of climate change are having a major impact on Latin America and the Caribbean. This impact affects the institutional, economic, social and environmental development of small island developing States, particularly the Dominican Republic, whose vulnerability to extreme events has increased in recent decades. Between 1980 and 2012, the Dominican Republic was affected by 28 hurricanes and storms and 20 floods that caused almost 2,000 loss of life. Of the total number of disastrous events recorded in the country since 1970, 79% correspond to events associated with climate risks, such as floods, droughts and landslides UNDP/UN Environment, 2018).

In the Dominican Republic, a diagnosis was carried out (2017) to improve access to early warning of hydro-meteorological phenomena for the population in risk areas, concluding that the current Early Warning System (EWS) is strongly oriented towards institutional response and does not offer information and warning levels with the degree of detail and differentiation required for the population to act in a timely manner with a focus on self-protection.

Design of a multi-hazard EWS
The project will design a framework of the Multi-Threat Early Warning System and its technical capacities and technological requirements needed for its establishment and sustainable operation. This aims to disseminate the alerts of the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System through cell phones in real time and thereby strengthen the capacities of the COE to provide these alerts in a timely and accurate manner.

Development of the National Risk Atlas (NRA)
This Atlas will be developed based on the consolidation of all public information on social, infrastructure, economic and environmental vulnerabilities in each of the country’s regions. This will facilitate the management of risks and damages caused by climate change in the country, which in turn will make international financing and private investments available to the country to improve adaptation and resilience to the effects of adverse events.

Strengthening of COE Alert’s mobile application
This result aims to disseminate the alerts of the Multi-Hazard Early Warning System through cell phones in real time and thereby strengthen the capacities of the COE to provide these alerts in a timely and accurate manner.