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The new research program of the Faculty of Law has just been published. You can find the program and a visual representation via following link: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14473/1118
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Publication Turning the Tide 2023 conference video(2024)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmsoVQPoFKA This video shows a compilation of the activities and participants of the Second International Conference on Small Island States and Subnational Island Jurisdictions Conference: "Turning the Tide: Climate Change, Social Change, and Islandness," that took place at the University of Aruba from the 23rd until the 26th of October 2023. The conference was organized jointly by the University of Aruba and the University of Prince Edward Island.Publication Education for Sustainable Development in Small Island States at the University of Aruba: Practice and Evaluation.(SOE Biennale Revolutionizing Caribbean Education, Cultivating Critical Competencies in a Shifting Landscap. UWI-Mona, 2024-07-10)This panel will focus on different approaches at the University of Aruba for capacity building for internal resilience of small island states and the way in which the creation of a critical mass of local higher educated experts that can create contextually relevant and locally accepted solutions will highly contribute to the resilience of these states. Building upon three papers that will be presented by the panel participants, we will demonstrate that it is necessary and possible to develop and implement impactful programs for Education for Sustainable Development in Small Island States, going beyond the focus on cognitive skills and knowledge. The panellists will present approaches to education in Aruba that stimulate critical sustainability thinking (the Academic Foundation Year, and the Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics programs (SISSTEM)). Second, they will demonstrate how the modules within these programs address and affect sustainability thinking and student attitudes toward sustainability. They will also elaborate on the founding principles and evaluation of these programs utilising the EU GreenComp framework. Altogether, the panel aims to demonstrate that despite the global nature of the challenges we face, contextual embeddedness and recognition of local characteristics and local adoption of sustainability thinking are key to building resilient societies.Publication Coastal boulders related to extreme marine events impacting the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao islands, Leeward Antilles)(EGU General Assembly 2024, Vienna, Austria, 14–19 Apr 2024, 2024-03)Extreme marine events determine different landform imprints, such as out-of-size deposits like coastal boulders with several tons in weight. These extreme marine events are usually connected to storms and tsunamis. Storms and tsunamis are characterized by a high-energy content, which is reflected in wave flow and wave height able to move the boulders. Several coastal boulders have been detected in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao (ABC) islands, overlying the marine terrace deposits that surround the seaward side of these islands. In this work, morpho-topographical surveys were performed on these coastal boulders in order to simulate the most probable events that caused their displacements. Unmanned Aerial Vehicle and close-range photogrammetry were used to reconstruct the volume and shape of boulders with their immersive scenario. Volume and shape of coastal boulders have been used to estimate the energy content able to determine their displacement. Furthermore, boulder samples were collected in order to assess their density and to obtain chronological constraints of the extreme marine events by applying U/Th and radiocarbon dating. Numerical models in Delft3D were applied to simulate the scenarios that could be responsible for the boulder movements. The results showed that the biggest boulders are located on Bonaire Island, located in the eastern part of the ABC archipelago, and were influenced by higher energy content than the Aruba and Curacao islands. This energy content could be related to three possible scenarios simulated in Delft3D: 1) a tsunami scenario connected to Venezuela earthquakes, 2) a Hurricane scenario impacting from the western side of the ABC archipelago, 3) a combination of multiple events (tsunami and storms) that caused differential boulders movement in the past.Publication Chambuká. This is basically what we do with language in our work. We make the best of a bad situation. Study for a language policy for Bonaire.(2024-10-25)In this contribution we intend to share the methods and outcomes of the 2020 - 2022 for a language policy for Bonaire in which the main question to be answered was: Will official policy and practice continue to frustrate and discourage the inclusive multilingual vision of the people of the island, or will it finally begin to support it? We conducted an online survey of the general public and had teachers administer language proficiency self-assessments and narrative proficiency tests to their students. Although we would also have liked to have done classroom observations, this was impossible due to the COVID-crisis. To make sure that there was ample space for Bonaireans to have their voices reflected in our findings, we conducted 26 interviews and 13 focus group meetings with a total of over 70 stakeholders from all backgrounds and walks of life in Bonaire. Finally, we also reached out virtually to hundreds of other Bonaireans through an online survey. We made a conscious effort to focus on including Bonaireans whose voices have not yet been heard over the course of the many debates that have occurred in the past concerning institutional language policy and practice on the island. We did so to include new opinions and points of view that might better represent the experiences, understandings and reflections of a more representative sample of the community than has been the case up until the present.Publication Coastal boulders emplaced by extreme wave events impacting the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao; Leeward Antilles, Caribbean)(2025-02-01)Large coastal boulders are ubiquitous geomorphological features that are emplaced along coasts by extreme marine events such as storms, hurricanes, and tsunamis. Many large coastal boulders have been identified on emergent fossil coral reefs on the windward sides of the Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao (ABC) islands in the Leeward Antilles of the Caribbean. Here, structure-from-motion/multi-view stereo techniques were used to map boulder sizes at several coastal sites in the ABC Islands as well as construct digital terrain models of the surrounding areas. Chronological constraints on boulder transport were established through the radiocarbon dating of the vermetids and coral colonies that comprised boulders located along a ridge on Aruba Island. A suite of hydrodynamic models was used to empirically derive the required flow thresholds for boulder displacement to determine whether tsunamis or hurricanes were responsible for detaching and transporting these boulders. Our results suggest that multiple tsunamis, most likely triggered by the El Pilar fault, located near the Venezuelan coast, were the cause of boulder detachment and transport in this region during the Holocene, between 4000 and 500 years BP.
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