Risk Root Cause Analysis Paper for PEARL (Preparing for Extreme And Rare events in coastaL regions project): St Maarten, Dutch Caribbean

This paper summarises the findings of the Risk Root Cause Analysis for St Maarten carried out by Work Package 1 researchers at King’s CollegeLondon in 2015 – 2016. The aim of this brief is to inform Work Package 1 research in the PEARL Project through:

1) Further validation and development of the PEARL Risk Root Cause Analysis Framework

2) Reflection on the application of particular methodologies for Root Cause Analysis

The paper is structured as follows: Section 2. Discusses the application of methods for Root Cause Analysis in St Maarten; Section 3. Provides essential background to the case study; Section 4. Presents the central analytical findings using the PEARL Risk and Root Cause Analysis Framework; Section 5. Presents initial findings about the role of institutional regimes in risk management based on the comparison between St Maarten and St Martin; Section 6. Discusses the broader implications of the study.

The Risk Root Cause Analysis for St Maarten followed the methodological approach laid out in PEARL Deliverable Paper 1.1. The research is based on individual, expert interviews with stakeholders, where the aim was to capture as diverse a set of views about disaster causation as possible through interviews with multiple stakeholder types. 22 interviews were conducted between July and November 2015, the majority face-to-face interviews but also telephone interviews with those whom it was not possible to meet during fieldwork on the island. The researcher ‘snowballed’out from interviews with initial contacts provided by other PEARL researchers to generate a wider field of interviewees. A list of interviewees is provided in Annex 1, and included independent expert consultants; Ministry of Public Housing, Spatial Planning, Environment and Infrastructure; Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labour; Fire Department; Meteorological Office; Ministry of Economic Affairs; Department of Communications; NGOs; Business sector bodies; Insurance companies; Port, Harbour and Marina companies.