In the capital city of the Dominican Republic, Santo Domingo, a landmark risk-prevention summit named “Prevention 360” has convened leading specialists from across the world and the country, spanning the fields of geology, meteorology, and emergency response. The gathering was organized to carry out a comprehensive evaluation of the dual threats of seismic activity and climate-driven disasters that the Caribbean nation currently confronts.
Unlike routine academic conferences, this event centered its discussions on four high-priority areas that directly impact public safety: the vulnerability of dense urban centers to disasters, evidence-based land use planning, the structural resilience of buildings and critical infrastructure, and the urgent need to boost the general public’s disaster preparedness capabilities for major events including earthquakes, hurricanes, and flash floods. Distinguished international speakers headlined the summit: Marcelo Lagos, a prominent Chilean geographer; John Morales, a veteran meteorologist with decades of extreme weather forecasting experience; and Laís Pinto De Carvalho, an environmental psychologist. Each brought unique perspectives to the table, with their talks delving into the intersection of crisis response systems and human behavioral patterns when catastrophic events unfold.
Local senior officials and technical experts also played a central role in the conference’s deliberations. Key participants included José Ignacio Paliza, Dominican geologist Osiris de León, and Juan Manuel Méndez, director of the country’s Emergency Operations Center (COE). During their presentations, they outlined the Dominican Republic’s existing capacities for local disaster response, while also drawing clear attention to the persistent challenges posed by aging infrastructure and uneven resource distribution across at-risk regions.
aIn addition to seismic risk assessments, the conference repeatedly emphasized the escalating urgency of climate change impacts currently unfolding across the country. The Dominican Republic is currently grappling with record-breaking high temperatures, increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns, and more frequent intense downpours that experts have linked to active tropical waves and abnormally warm surface temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean — trends that are expected to intensify in the coming years without targeted intervention.