Summary
Climate change is one of the preeminent scientific and policy challenges of our time. Recent climate disasters have highlighted the need to improve the resiliency and sustainability of communities globally. The Dominican Republic, a country particularly vulnerable to natural hazards, has been consistently ranked among the countries with the highest natural disaster risk in the western hemisphere. At the same time, the current physical infrastructure that provides basic services, such as power, water and internet to urban residents of the Dominican Republic is severely strained. As the Dominican Republic experiences increasing frequency and severity of such threats, with disastrous human and economic consequences, there is an urgent need for novel and practical solutions to achieve climate resiliency.
This project aims to strengthen the Dominican Republic’s ability to confront natural disasters through community resilience centers, with the goal of increasing communities’ capacities to prepare for and respond to natural and other disasters. Resilience centers are places that (1) empower communities through ongoing education, training, and health and social services; (2) provide coordinated emergency response in the event of disaster or disruption; and (3) enable effective recovery with information dissemination and research during post-disaster recovery.
In the first phase, the project developed a blueprint, or plan, for a new resilience center in Cristo Rey, a neighborhood of Santo Domingo (see report below). The plan was the result of a collaborative effort between local government, academia, non-profit organizations and community groups in Santo Domingo and New York City. The blueprint serves as a roadmap for the development of resilience centers across communities in the Dominican Republic and the Caribbean.
The second phase of the project (ongoing) has included the integration of the center program into the Dominican government policies and agencies, the development of governance and financing structures, and the launch of education and capacity building programs focused on the intersection of climate change, health-related impacts and community preparedness. The programs built capacities and skills of community members and organizations in the areas of climate hazards, the impacts of climate on health, understanding risks and vulnerabilities within the community and ways to protect their health and those of their families.
In Partnership With:
Statistics
- $345 millionestimated annual average loss caused by hurricanes in the Dominican Republic
Team
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Jesus D’Alessandro
Ayuntamiento del Distrito NacionalProject LeadRead Full Bio arrow_right_altDr. Jesus D’Alessandro was a project lead, representing the Ayuntamiento del Distrito Nacional. He is currently the technical secretary of the Ayuntamiento del Distrito...
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Kalil Erazo
Instituto Tecnológico de Santo DomingoProject LeadRead Full Bio arrow_right_altDr. Kalil Erazo was a project lead, representing the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC). Dr. Erazo is a research professor at the INTEC (Dominican...
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Esteban Gonzales Reyes
Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE)Project LeadRead Full Bio arrow_right_altProf. Esteban Gonzales Reyes serves on the faculty of the School of Architecture at Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) and is the founder of Ground Arquietectura, an architecture...
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Vanessa Espaillat Lovett
Project TeamRead Full Bio arrow_right_altVanessa Espaillat Lovett was responsible for the management of the project. Espaillat Lovett is an architect and urbanist trained at Columbia University, the Architectural...
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Richard Plunz
Columbia UniversityProject LeadRead Full Bio arrow_right_altProf. Richard Plunz is professor emeritus at Columbia University and founder of the Earth Institute Urban Design Lab. In the past he served as Chair of the Division of...
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Cecilia Sorensen
Columbia UniversityProject TeamRead Full Bio arrow_right_altDr. Cecilia Sorensen, M.D. is the director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University, associate professor of Emergency...
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Graciela Abinader
Strategic AdvisorRead Full Bio arrow_right_altGraciela Abinader is a Strategic Advisor to the project, where she contributes her expertise in public affairs, policy strategy, and legal frameworks to support institutional...
Go Deeper
Reports
Building Climate Resilient Communities in the Dominican Republic: A blueprint for a community Resilience Center in Santo Domingo (English)
Construyendo Comunidades Resilientes al Clima en la Republica Dominicana: Plan para el Centro Comunitario de Resiliencia en Santo Domingo (Espanol)
Publications
- Weinstein, H. N. W., Hadley, K., Patel, J., Silliman, S., Gomez Carrasco, R. Y., Arredondo Santana, A. J., Sosa, H., Rosa, S. M., Martinez, C., Hamacher, N. P., Campbell, H., Sullivan, J. K., Magalhães, D. d. P., Sorensen, C., & Valenzuela González, A. C. (2025). A Train-the-Trainer Approach to Build Community Resilience to the Health Impacts of Climate Change in the Dominican Republic. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 22(4), 650. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph22040650
Contact
For further information on this project, email:
Sarah Silliman, Associate Director, Project Management, Columbia World Projects, [email protected]