In early March Environment Systems Ltd ran a workshop involving staff from the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and the National Parks Trust of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). Delegates studied techniques to uncover the hidden value that the environment is providing in terms of essential services, such as water, food and flood resilience. They also learnt how to explore environmental indicators and how they can be developed to monitor any changes that impact long-term environmental sustainability.

During the workshop delegates learned how to use new types of data such as satellite imagery to analyse, monitor and assess environmental risks. This will enable them to identify opportunities in the future, that both safeguard and enhance the islands’ environments and ensure their resilience. This has been brought into particular focus by the recent hurricanes. New IT equipment has also been delivered as part of this project to ensure its long-term impact. The staff involved will benefit from the continuous and up-to-date stream of Sentinel satellite data delivered direct to their computers.

Now that staff are able to generate the mapping and modelling themselves, the islands can really start to benefit from these new techniques and sources of data. This will also improve the capability of officials by enabling them to present evidence in their day-to-day work. The workshop was funded by the UK’s Darwin Plus program.