Meet The MGI Team
MGI, along with its partners, are excited to begin work on an environmental project which aims to bolster the defence of the vulnerable, low-lying areas of the city of Kingston against the climate risks of flooding, storm surges, and hurricanes through mangrove restoration, rehabilitation, and conservation within the Kingston Harbour. The KHEAM Project has kicked off and MGI is happy to report our progress on mobilising for the ‘Implementation of Eco-System Adaptation Measures for the Kingston Harbour Communities’. MGI team consists of researchers, project coordinators and fieldwork officers from MGI, led by Dr Ava Maxam and Dr Christopher Daly. Dr Maxam is currently Deputy Director of MGI, where she manages the Natural Hazards & Environment Division, the Human & Social Division, the Software Development Division, and MGIBlue. She holds a PhD in Oceanography and has led to publications on the effect of ocean circulation on Jamaica’s coral reefs and coastlines.
Dr Christopher Daly completed his Ph.D. studies in Coastal Geomorphology and is currently researching beach dynamics, sediment transport, wave breaking schematization, surf zone hydrodynamics, swash zone processes, coastal landscape evolution, remote sensing, data collection, instrumentation, and acoustic measurement. The work being done on this project forms part of research into understanding how plastic waste from several gully outfalls into the Kingston Harbour, Jamaica, is transported and deposited on to mangroves at various locations around the Harbour.
Planning & Design Phase
The team has held several meetings with relevant partners and stakeholders to create work plans and outlines to achieve the objectives of the project. Our methodology was developed to scientifically monitor, detect, measure, classify and manage solid waste impact on mangroves while depicting and predicting mangrove cover scenarios due to solid waste impacts on mangroves.
Starting May 2021, field surveys are scheduled to take place bi-annually across a three year period with surveys lasting 21 days.
The procurement process of the project has begun and we now await the arrival of the last few pieces of equipment to start our field surveys. In the meantime, we have started construction of concrete ballasts which we will use to secure monitoring equipment to the seafloor.
