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 (DR), 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.

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). Resilience centers are physical community spaces developed 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.

This project aims to strengthen the Dominican Republic’s ability to confront natural disasters. In the wake of natural disasters, local resilience centers can provide life-sustaining services like electricity and water, as they are less prone to large-scale outages than centralized facilities.

The plan developed in the first phase is 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 will not only provide an important roadmap for the implementation of the resilience center in Cristo Rey, but it will also provide a rubric for other communities in the Dominican Republic and around the Caribbean in need of innovative approaches to addressing the realities of climate change.

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In Partnership With:

• Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC)
• Office of the Mayor of Santo Domingo (Ayuntamiento del Distrito Nacional de Santo Domingo [ADN])
• Centro de Operaciones de Emergencias (COE)
• Administrative Ministry of the President of Dominican Republic (MAPRE)
• American Chamber of Commerce of the Dominican Republic (AMCHAMDR)
• Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE)