SPC Geoscience Division

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SPC GEOSCIENCE PROGRAMMES

The Geoscience Division’s work focuses on providing assistance to Members in three technical programme areas: Geoscience for Development (formerly Ocean and Islands), Water and Sanitation and Disaster Reduction.

  • Geoscience for Development provides applied ocean, island and coastal geoscience services to support countries to govern and develop their natural resources, increase their resilience to hazards and facilitates data-based approaches to adaption. These vital technical services will be strategically deployed in response to specific Member requests to assist in the development, management and monitoring of natural resources and unique island environmental systems and processes.
  • Water and Sanitation Programme provides technical support to Members through capacity building, awareness and advocacy related to the management of water resources and the provision of water supply and sanitation services.
  • Disaster Reduction Programme provides Members with technical and policy advice and support to strengthen disaster risk management practices. The programme carries out this responsibility in coordination and collaboration with other technical programme areas within the Division and also with a range of regional and international development partners and donors.

Technical Support Services that cross cut the work of the three technical work programmes of the Geoscience Division are: natural resource economics; GIS and remote sensing; technical equipment and services; data management; and publications and library.

Corporate Services Support to the technical work programmes and technical support services of the Division are through ensuring effective policies and practices are in place for the orderly and efficient delivery of work. Corporate Services Support consists of finance, administration and IT support facilities, all of which would progressively integrate within the SPC beginning 1 January 2011.


 

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31st August 2012 - A study of tropical cyclones and associated wave action is providing information that can be used to assess the resilience of Mangaia, the most southern of the Cook Islands, to the impacts of climate change and sea level rise.

Mr Jens Kruger of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) said that with coastal communities, private property, family homes and public infrastructure, such as the harbour, already exposed to extreme weather events, the recent study will help to support a risk-based approach to climate change adaptation.

Mr Kruger is the Physical Oceanographer with SPC’s Oceans and Islands Programme in the Applied Geoscience and Technology (SOPAC) Division.

He explained that data gathered during the study can be used to develop models of different scenarios to assess how changes in the climate and sea level would affect the frequency, magnitude and extent of coastal inundation on the island of Mangaia.

The data were collected by a team from SPC/SOPAC, the Cook Island's Ministry of Infrastructure and Planning, and New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

The research is part of the Pacific Adaptation to Climate Change project, funded by the Global Environment Facility through UNDP Samoa and SPREP (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme). The project involves 14 Pacific Island countries including Cook Islands.

‘A key outcome of the study has been the Cook Islands Coastal Calculator, an engineering spreadsheet that can be used to provide information on waves and water levels at the shoreline, wave run-up and the resulting inundation,’ said Mr Kruger.