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2
pm - 3:15 pm Presentation session 1
Aula UA/online
Eric Mijts
Introducing
UAUCU 2022
As in previous years, students from the University of
Aruba (UA) and from University College Utrecht (UCU) of Utrecht
University carried out empirical research in and about Aruba, and
supported each other in that process. Like the students of cohorts
before them, they defined their own guiding principles and goals for
their participation in the project during the orientation period.
These ideas reflect their hopes of working in ways that could be
meaningful to others as well as to themselves. At this symposium,
they will share their preliminary findings with the Aruban community.
Milena Stoilova
Presentation
Sustainable
tourism in Aruba: a myth or reality? A case study from the Bucuti
& Tara Beach Resort
Aruba is famous for its beautiful nature, such as the
white beaches and blue waters. Because of its nature’s business,
thousands of tourists are attracted to Aruba annually, making tourism
the main industry. While tourism generates jobs and promotes
well-being, it has an exhausting effect on the environment as well as
society of Aruba. Therefore, it is necessary to move towards a
sustainable form of tourism. This research is aimed to assess the
current state of sustainable tourism, shown through a case study of
the Bucuti & Tara Beach Resort.
Klara Röhrs
Presentation
Remembering the
Coast: Assessing the coastline and coastal changes on Aruba by using
volunteered geographic information (VGI)
Coasts and coastlines are under constant change, which
is part of the natural process. However, humans also massively
influence the coastline. For this research volunteered geographic
information (VGI) on the state of the coastline and costal changes is
collected with a survey. Aruban residents are asked to place on a map
where they can remember coastal changes. From this an overall map
will be created that gives an account of coastal changes in Aruba, so
that it becomes possible to address them. The changes collected are
followed up with satellite image analysis to assess the possibility
of quantifying them.
Carlotta M. Henning
Presentation
Learning to play
it by ear: Understanding barriers to public participation in urban
planning on Aruba
In recent decades urban planning moves towards
including the public in the development of cities. This is seen as
central in affording more sustainable and resilient communities.
However, in many countries implementing participation is lagging
behind and token
participation remains prominent. This research aims to shed light on
the state of public participation in Aruba, both within government
initiatives, and beyond the government through bottom-up
perspectives. Furthermore, the research aims to understand current
barriers to increase public participation, with the goal of proposing
a new pathway for participatory structures. This thesis does so
through, interviews, surveys and a community workshops.
Karlijn van der Loo
Presentation
If the Ship
Stops Sailing': How can food sovereignty in Aruba be protected in
public policy and developed as a notion in international human rights
law?
COVID-19 brought the issue of dependency on food
importation to the forefront in Aruba. This called for a development
of self-subsistence, central to the notion of food sovereignty. The
aim is to develop this conceptualization of the right to food in Aruban
policy and international human rights law. Through interviews with
stakeholders in agriculture, researchers, NGOs, and community
gardening, I paint a picture of what food needs are present on the
island, beyond the basics encapsulated in food security. The need for
collaboration and sharing of knowledge emerges as a recurring theme,
and becomes central to interviews, surveys, and work with Santa Rosa,
community initiatives, and other governmental bodies.
3:15 pm - 4 pm Poster session
Location: in
front of aula/online
Lynn Smeets
Poster
Impacting the
island's future: an insight into the effect of perceived efficacy of
young Arubans on their civic and political engagement in
environmental action
With the global climate crisis looming over our heads,
youth have often been told that they are the solution to a better
future. However, how often are their voices actually included? In
Aruba, this is even more relevant, as the island is already affected
by a changing climate, impacting young Arubans’ livelihoods for the
decades to come. Therefore, this research investigates the engagement
of the young people of Aruba in environmental actions. It especially
aims to see how youth’s low levels of perceived efficacy in Aruba’s
governmental context might influence the ways they take ownership
over their roles within a changing society.
Maro A. Savvides
Poster
Communicating
the Geologic History of Aruba: Contextualizing Gold and Incorporating
Human Activity as a Geologic Force
Aruba's geology is textually recorded. However, this
information exists almost exclusively in a dense, academic setting,
resulting in an alienation of the public from the available
knowledge. In the following text, I aim to communicate the geologic events
that led to Aruba’s modern day presentation. Using clear diagrams,
field photography and defining common geologic language, this text
can serve as an introduction to Aruba’s geology, as well as geology
itself to the common person. Furthermore, I aim to contextualize
gold’s role in Aruba and incorporate human activity’s impact on the
geology of the island.
Joao Wendrich Teixeira
Poster
Winds of change
in Aruba: a Push For The Return of higher Biodiversity
With reforestation in Aruba in mind, this project aims
at understanding the effect of wind in plant communities. Wind, being
a strong force in Aruba, affects plant distribution, plant density
and biodiversity, which ultimately affects the ecosystem services
that these plants provide. By understanding how plants respond to
wind, this information could be applied in reforestation efforts,
especially when considering how trees deal with wind, and how they
adapt, in relation to each other, to survive windy conditions. Thus
the information obtained from this research will not only elucidate
on the structure of Aruban Flora, but it will also elucidate on the
possible effect that wind has on plant biodiversity and distribution.
Tracy van der Biezen
Poster
How citizen
science can contribute to Aruba's SDG indicators: Creating a
framework for meta-analysis
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) are a well-known metric in global, inter-governmental and
local sustainable development and policies. These 17 goals each have
an overarching theme with specific metrics (or indicators) used to
measure the state of the nation in comparison to overall goals set
for 2030. The draw of these indicators is to show progress over time,
with measurements intended to be taken yearly, if not more frequent.
However, a quick look at Aruba’s SDG report shows that while the
nation is doing relatively well, much of the data for the indicators
is simply unavailable or non-existent. A proposed solution to this is
citizen science, where volunteers are directly involved in data
collection, where mass funding does not have to come from
universities or government institutions as volunteers are donating
their time. Can citizen science directly contribute to the lack of
data in the indicators on Aruba?
Endy Brooks
Poster
SIDS vertical
farming: water- and energy assessment on Albion strawberry production
in Aruba
SIDS are dependent on import for their food. This has
to do with their insularity, smallness, nutrient constraints,
transportation cost & labor cost. To address food security in
SIDS, vertical farming/indoor farming is of great importance as less
nutrients, space and water are needed. Currently vertical farms on
Aruba are mostly based on leafy greens. For further enhancement of
food security, crop diversification is required. Therefore the
integration of Albion strawberries into vertical farming was thought
of as it is one of the fruits that consumes less space and provides a
lot of nutrient value. However, the feasibility of the Albion strawberry
production still needs to be measured. This paper focus on the water
& energy assessment of the Albion strawberry in an indoor
setting. Different measurements and analysis will be done with the
objectives to quantify energy and water usage of the Albion
strawberry and how sustainable energy production can be implemented
to fill in the energy demand for cultivation.
Nigel de Cuba
Poster
The challenges
of implementing circularity in the flow of waste tyres on Aruba
Like most Small Islands Aruba also relies heavily on
imports. The dependency on imports causes Aruba to have a very linear
economy, especially when it comes to waste tyres. The tyres are
imported and eventually end up at the landfill. For this research a
material flow analysis is conducted to figure out the flow and
accumulation of waste tyres in Aruba. From the material flow
analysis, recommendations can then be formulated on what Aruba could
implement to support a more circular economy when it comes to waste
tyres.
Alejandra Moreno
Poster
Food security
perceived by Aruban households
Throughout Aruba's history, there has been a shift
away from self-sustaining agriculture to dependency on external food
sources. When Aruba’s economy shifted further to a tourism based
economy, the labor force focused on the tourism sector too. The
island now imports more than 90% of the food it consumes. The
COVID-19 lockdown heavily emphasized the dependency Aruba has on food
imports. It also emphasized how fragile the food security is on Aruba
as it is dependent on external production and transportation. This
research will look at ways to increase food production on the island,
to minimize the effect external factors have on the availability and
accessibility of food on the island. Data will also be collected on
how the Aruban population feels about their food security and the
actions that they are willing and able to take to improve it. This
will be done through a survey.
Armand Kelly
Poster
Electrification of airside equipment at Aruba Airport
Authority
Before an airplane arrives at an airport there is
already equipment on standby that is emitting greenhouse gasses,
setting up in preparation for the aircraft. Aruba airport has the
ambition to go towards a zero-emission airside. So, how can this be
done? Going through documents and using observation, an inventory of
all the equipment that are used for a single aircraftwill be made.
Once you know what you have, it is easier to understand what needs to
be changed and what the new energy demand is for the equipment. Once
the demand is understood, the technology to store and charge this
equipment is researched. Recommendations will be proposed considering
factors such as airport operations, maintenance, complexity,
economical as well as the environmental impact by implementing new
technology.
4 pm - 5:15 pm Presentation session part 2
Aula UA/online
Rachel Nel
Presentation
Fostering
community stewardship: The role of sense of place in participation in
environmental initiatives
Small island states in the Caribbean are recognized as
some of the most vulnerable to climate change. Globally, and locally
within Aruba, ecosystems are changing, threatening the livelihoods of
humans and non-humans. The human roots of these problems call for a
reframing of our relationship with our environment. Local
environmental initiatives are becoming increasingly important: not
only for building resilience to climate change, and mitigating
environmental damage but can also foster healthier and more
sustainable relationships with nature. It is thus important to
understand what motivates people to take action and protect places
that are meaningful to them. This thesis aims to investigate whether
individuals’ identity and emotional attachments to Aruba motivated
their participation in environmental initiatives.
Sophia Klaußner
Presentation
Water = Water,
right? Comparing wetlands on the island of Aruba to determine
influences of wastewater effluents on the water quality of a wetland
area
Man-made wetlands have been used as filtering systems
for wastewater for several decades. Aruba is also making use of this
concept at the wetland area of Bubali that is being fed by a
wastewater treatment plant. The aim of this research was to determine
whether water quality indicators are the same throughout the entire
wetland or whether they are different throughout depending on the
distance to the inflowing water source. The values of Bubali were
then compared to values of the Spanish lagoon and a Salina at the
North of the island to see whether Bubali exhibits different values
from other wetlands on the island.
Laura Mathieu
Presentation
Breathing
Unevenly: Community Response to Environmental Injustice. A case study
of Aruba's Landfill and the Parkietenbos community
On small islands, municipal waste management is a
challenging task and difficult problem to solve. On Aruba in
particular, the bulk of waste is dumped in Parkietenbos, a landfill
on the island's south side, without proper processing. It is
perpetually on fire due to sudden combustion and when the wind turns,
toxic fumes from this landfill fill the lungs of the residents of the
neighborhood right next door. This research aims to qualitatively
demonstrate the adverse health, social and environmental effects of
the landfill since there have been few studies on the subject.
Through interviews with inhabitants, policy-makers, government
officials and NGOs, this research sheds light on the environmental
injustices and responses that take place within and outside of the
Parkietenbos community.
Michel Frank
Presentation
Citizen science,
a tool to fill the plastic waste data gap in Aruba.
Worldwide, as in Aruba, a (plastic) waste data gap
exists. Any strategy to tackle the excessive flow of plastic waste is
only as good as the data behind it, of which most of it is incomplete
or even non-existent. Aruba’s tourism contributes to approximately
35% of the total waste produced locally. This paper focusses on
research through citizen science, science used by citizens by means
of a digital tool, by collecting data from travelers at Aruba’s
International Airport on plastic waste. In this manner this research
also contributes to AAA’s aim to become more sustainable and tackle
the plastic waste issue.
Daniel Balutowski
Presentation
Brown Tides:
Assessing the Past, Present, & Future State of Sargassum in Aruba
In the last decade, Caribbean shores have been
inundated with sargassum which has had devastating impacts on the
tourism and fishing industries along with coastal environments and
biodiversity. With little to no research conducted on the state of
Sargassum in Aruba, I aim to fill that gap with this thesis by
predicting future sargassum influxes based on historical satellite
data and through existing cases from neighboring islands. In
collecting both quantitative and qualitative data through interviews,
sargassum monitoring software, and GIS analysis, my research will explore
the potential social, economic, and environmental consequences that
Aruba may face with future sargassum influxes.
Eric Mijts
Virtual island
tour and preliminary book launch
The annual UAUCU program kicks off with a week long
program on challenges for sustainability issues in small island
states. In this final contribution, a virtual island tour is
presented that was developed this year in order to broaden the
discussions on sustainable development in small island states.
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