Higher standards, vulnerability audits and targeted upgrades can be applied to safeguard these facilities. Highly specialized facilities, such as ports and electrical power generation networks, require specialized treatment as well. Addressing the issue of Mitigation of Damage Caused by Natural Hazards to Civil Works , and by conducting vulnerability audits for hydroelectric power facilities in Dominica , electrical power facilities in St. Lucia and transmission and distribution systems in St. Vincent and the Grenadines . Subsequent to Hurricane Luis, CDMP undertook a case study of the storm's effects on the Antigua Public Utilities Authority . Further information on these studies is available on the CDMP's Papers and Publications web page.
Tourism is central to the economy of many countries in the Caribbean.
CDMP developed the structural vulnerability reduction chapter for his manual. Costs and Benefits One of the arguments against the development and enforcement of appropriate building codes and standards is that they make development costs prohibitive. Studies undertaken in the Caribbean by the CDMP and others of the construction industry and of infrastructure that has failed due to natural hazards, have shown this to be false. Mitigation Planning Building codes are only one tool for increasing the built environment's resilience in the face of natural hazards. Land use planning, emergency management, natural resource protection and infrastructure development policies play significant roles as well.