1 September 2014: Small island developing States (SIDS) are experiencing among the earliest and most severe climate change impacts, according to a report published by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the University of Ghent, Belgium. The report combines a series of 21 case studies from the Caribbean with satellite images to document environmental change in coastlines, corals, estuaries, forests and mangroves.

The report, ‘Changing Small Island Developing States: A space perspective on environmental change in the Caribbean’ represents one of UNESCO’s contributions to the International year of SIDS 2014 and is the result of collaboration on environmental management with the University of Ghent. The project is working to establish connections among Caribbean governments and universities with space agencies to promote remote-sensing as a tool for environmental management.

The report illustrates remote sensing as a tool to assess the impacts of disasters, such as earthquakes, flooding, hurricanes and landslides. It shows changes in landscapes over time by using pairs of multi-temporal images to illustrate damages to SIDS from climate change, coral bleaching, deforestation, sea-level rise and tourism and urban development as well as natural hazards. The report also addresses: invasive species; different approaches to land use and conservation; challenges related to industrialization and urbanization trends; and reconstruction efforts.

The European Space Agency (ESA) and the French, National Center for Space Studies (CNES) provided high-resolution imagery for use in the analysis and report. [Publication: Changing Small Island Developing States: A Space Perspective on Environmental Change in the Caribbean] [UNESCO Press Release] [UNESCO Website on SIDS]