River and coastal management

A Strategy and Master Plan for Sea Defences will allow for more effective and cost-efficient management of the sea defences.

The long-term objective of developing Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) in Guyana provides a framework for the present project. The Sea and River Defence Division is to play a key role in ICZM through the management of the sea defences, consisting of both mangrove vegetation and man-made structures. A Strategy and Master Plan for Sea Defences will allow for more effective and cost-efficient management of the sea defences. The future development of this plan is the main purpose and the application of the capacities that will be built through the present project.

A comprehensive Training Programme was developed to meet the objectives of the project. Trainees will be Learning-by-doing in the following fields: Surveys, Data Management and GIS, Modelling, Sea Defence Structures, Mangrove Management and Strategy and Master Planning. All organisations and authorities that play a key role in ICZM in Guyana were invited to actively participate in the proposed Training Programme.

Finally, a range of data collection, modelling and data management tasks are being carried out, directly related to the work of the trainee teams. These provide the trainees with hands-on experience and opportunities to find relevant data and the answers to the questions from their team.