Climate Change and Tourism - UNEP - Division of Technology ...

84 Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges
9.2.2 Adaptation to Extreme Events and Natural Disasters
Climate change provides additional incentives to ensure that new tourism infrastructures are designed
and built in such a way that climate change risks will not result in premature deterioration or failure.
Similarly, existing infrastructure may have to be modified if current performance standards are
inconsistent with the changed climatic conditions. For example, tourist accommodation in tropical
areas should be built or retrofitted to be cyclone-proof; i.e., withstand both high average wind speeds
and extreme conditions. Windows and doors are generally the weak points susceptible to breakdown
by wind pressure and blowing debris. Once failure occurs, wind pressure builds up inside the building,
and in seconds may lift the roof off a building hurricane shutters can also provide effective protection
(see Figure 9.10).
Figure 9.10 Windows shutters as a protection against hurricanes
UNWTO, 9 July 2008
Photo credit: Becken, S.
Tourism depends on an intact ecosystem and on institutional structures that can respond to the needs
of local people and visitors. Therefore, disaster preparedness and management (against natural or
human-made hazards) should be an essential part of any destinations’ integrated management plan.
Responding to this challenge UNEP has developed a process that assists local communities to increase
their level of preparedness and response to disasters. APELL, standing for Awareness and Preparedness
for Emergencies at the Local Level, is a process designed to create public awareness of hazards and
to ensure that communities and emergency services are adequately trained and prepared to respond.
423 The UNEP Disaster Risk Reduction in Tourism Destinations programme using the APELL process
has been established to improve disaster awareness, develop local and national strategies to enhance
environmental and coastal planning process, aid risk identification and management, as well as
ultimately to improve the trust relationship between visitors and their destination, in three Asian coastal
locations (Kanniyakumari in Tamil Nadu State of India, Patong in Phuket and Pi-Pi Island in Krabi of
Thailand).
Early warning systems are essential for climate change adaptation. Early warning relates to extreme
wind events, storm surges, flooding and heat waves. The early warning of a heat wave will reduce
health risks, including mortality. For example, after the 1995 heat wave in the USA, the city of Chicago
initiated an ‘extreme heat conditions plan’. This involves local agencies, communications tests, stepped
responses to early forecasts, a 24-hour ‘hotline’ and other interventions such as opening air-conditioned
shopping malls at night time to those individuals most vulnerable to heat. During a comparable heat
wave in 1999, heat-related morbidity and mortality were almost halved, relative to expected levels. 424
Currently, over nine European countries and two dozen cities worldwide have weather-watch warning
procedures using various systems to forecast days expected to experience an increase in the average
number of deaths due to excessive heat. 425