Barbados' Biggest Hazards: Final Conclusions

After extensive research, it is in my educated opinion that Barbados' biggest natural hazards are mass wasting and coastal hazards such as beach erosion. As a tropical island nation, they are extremely vulnerable to the negative effects brought on by climate change. Barbados is a country built upon the rise of coral reefs, but climate change, deforestation, and pollution caused by tourism are all contributing to the death of coral reefs. While the number has since increased, at one point in time Barbados only had one sewage treatment facility, and that was not enough to handle the demand of the island during tourist season. This caused domestic sewage runoff to go into the ocean and kill the coral reefs. Without these reefs, there's nothing stopping large scale waves from crashing on the shore and causing destruction on the beaches. Barbados is already a small island, only 166 square miles, and beach erosion is causing beaches to decrease in size by about a foot per year. Barbados' other main concern is mass wasting, specifically landslides. Climate change has caused both the hot, dry season and the wet season to be more extreme. When the soil gets more dry, it's harder for it to absorb all the water that comes during the commonly seen tropical storms. This causes landslides mostly in the northeastern part of the island known as the Scotland District and makes land unusable for agriculture. As climate change worsens. the soils ability to adjust to and absorb seasonal rainfall worsens, as does Barbados' ability to produce some of their necessary crops that they export such as sugarcane and cotton. 
The main reason I am addressing both coastal erosion and mass wasting as Barbados' main hazards is because they are a country that relies heavily on tourism and agricultural exports. In fact, in 2017 Barbados brought in $1.06 billion U.S. dollars from tourism. If coastal erosion causes beaches to be less usable, and mass wasting to cause agriculture production to decrease, then what will Barbados be left with? The answer is a struggling economy. My solution for the coastal erosion issue would be to install more efficient and new sewage treatment facilities to be able to handle the demand created by large scale developments that have been built to increase tourism such as condominiums and vacation resorts. In regards to mass wasting, my opinion is that Barbados needs to put money into moving their agriculture to other areas that aren't at risk for landslides. They should put money into researching and doing soil quality testing in other areas of the island besides the northeastern part to see if it is possibly to grow elsewhere. Because of their vulnerability, I would target the coast and the agricultural growing areas such as the Scotland District to help first.
If I were to move to Barbados and build a home, I would avoid building directly on the coast, as sea level rise is an issue. The west coast specifically, also known as the Platinum Coast" suffers from horrible beach erosion, only exacerbated by the continued development of luxury condos and resorts. Barbados' Coastal Zone Management Unit, which is a government agency dedicated to controlling coastal erosion, stated that they believe global warming is the cause of Barbados' beach erosion, but I am of strong belief that the construction of sea groins and pollution from tourists is also a huge contributor. For those reasons I would avoid building a home on the west coast of Barbados. I would also not build on any areas of high elevation as those areas could be effected by landslides. 


Sources: https://www.oas.org/dsd/publications/Unit/oea59e/ch37.htm
https://theodora.com/wfbcurrent/barbados/barbados_economy.html
https://www.statista.com/statistics/814750/barbados-tourism-revenue/
https://coastalcare.org/2011/02/last-chance-beach-battling-erosion-in-barbados/