Building environmental resilience with green infrastructure planning in the Dominican Republic

Abstract

[Project fact sheet] The Dominican Republic faces ongoing climate-related challenges, including flooding, mudslides, and increasing temperatures resulting in salinization, rising sea-levels, and coastal erosion. USAID’s Partnerships for Enhanced Engagement in Research (PEER) program-funded lead researcher Dr. Solhanlle Bonilla-Duarte from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC) and her team have been working alongside Gerald Bauer and Dr. Wayne Arendt from the U.S. Forest Service and Dr. Elvia Meléndez-Ackerman from the University of Puerto Rico to help the Dominican Republic adapt to climate change. Using an urban forestry approach, the researchers are engaging local communities and collaborating with academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and policy-makers to build resilience within urban environments and equip urban communities with tools to alleviate the effects of climate change.