Supporting a Resilience Observatory to Climate Risks in French Polynesia: From Valorization of Preexisting Data to Low-Cost Data Acquisition

Abstract

Climate change has an ever-increasing impact on island territories. Whether it is due to rising sea levels or the increase in recurrence and intensity of extreme events, island territories are increasingly vulnerable. These impacts are expected to affect marine and terrestrial biodiversity, human occupation (infrastructure) and other activities such as agriculture and tourism, the two economic pillars of French Polynesia. While the current and future impacts of climate change on island territories are generally accepted, data acquisition, modeling, and projections of climate change are more complex to obtain and limitedly cover the island territories of the Pacific region. This article aims to develop methodologies for the acquisition and exploitation of data on current and future climate risks and their impacts in French Polynesia. This work of acquisition and valorization is part of a research project for the development of an observatory of resilience to climate risks in the perspective of building a spatial decision support system.

A Systematic Review of UAVs for Island Coastal Environment and Risk Monitoring: Towards a Resilience Assessment

“…The latest technology of UAVs additionally allows for specific sensors, cameras, or even test tubes to attach on to the UAV, adding to the adaptability of this tool [41]. The accessibility, price, simplicity, and high-resolution data help show that these spatial tools are capable of complementing or even replacing other aerial data sources such as satellites and aircraft [43]. The affordability of UAVs both in time and price for coastal monitoring and research has been documented in recent scientific literature as well as within every study analyzed in this review [22,[27][28][29][30]33].…”

“…UAV imagery and footage can be used as a communicative tool for raising awareness in a community by highlighting environmental hazards and engaging stakeholders at various levels. High-resolution data collected from UAV platforms also has the capacity to provide a rapid overview of the disaster area [43].…”

“…Due to the technical advancements made over time, UAVs are helping with the complex task of coastal environmental disaster monitoring and have the potential to greatly increase the availability of data for spatial modeling, specifically in vulnerable and complicated to access/maneuver through territories. The technical advantages, the possibility for frequent surveys, and the capacity for community awareness and communication are advantages that allow UAVs to serve as efficient tools and have the potential to present local authorities and decision-making bodies with a more global picture of the environmental impacts [43].…”

“…The utilization of the Resilience Observatory as a spatial decision-support system in French Polynesia is also still in the embryonic phase. Some studies have been conducted on the operationalization of the concept of resilience and its application to an observatory [43,[61][62][63][64][65][66]. These studies have begun to identify the role that the Resilience Observatory will play, its internal functions, existing strategies and tools aimed at facilitating the operationalization of the concept, and how it will valorize data to support said observatory.…”

“…UAVs and a spatial decision-support system such as the Resilience Observatory are both spatial tools that have great potential in the context of coastal risk management. The use and development of these tools can be effective for the management of the increasingly vulnerable and dynamic coasts of island nations like French Polynesia [43]. However, they require further efforts for a well-developed application, since they are relatively unprecedented in the context of French Polynesia, for the Resilience Observatory to continue solidifying.…”