Dr. Klaus J Meyer-Arendt

This special issue is presented as a thematic issue devoted to tropical coastal and island tourism. Included in the issue are articles on (eco)tourism in Madagascar, collaboration theory and tourism partnership models on an Indonesian island, development pressure and resilience on a Malaysian island, a survey of cruise passengers in Colombia, perception and limits to development in Costa Rica, and perception and reality on Pitcairn Island. Placed within theoretical or conceptual frameworks, these case studies can be applied to development challenges of tropical coastal and island destinations worldwide.

Quasi-permanent rip current hot spots at Pensacola Beach, Florida, pose a significant hazard to beach users, largely because the hot spots are located at or close to the primary access points. While an increase in the number of lifeguards has led to a decrease in the number of drownings since 2004, the number of rescues and contacts has increased to over a 30,000 year. Despite warning signs at access points along the beach, it is not clear whether beach users are able to identify a rip channel or an active rip current. To assess beach users’ knowledge of rip currents and their ability to identify rip channels and currents, 97 surveys were conducted between June and September of 2010 at Pensacola Beach. Beach users were asked to identify rip channels in oblique photographs taken on green, yellow and red flag days when the potential for rip currents is low, medium and high, respectively. A majority of participants suggested that they could identify a rip channel or current (if present), but less than 20% of beach users were able to identify the rip channels and currents. The majority of participants identified heavy surf areas as the location of the rips versus the relatively flat water of the current or the darker color water of the channel. Results further suggest that most beach users, and particularly local participants, are overconfident in their ability to identify rip channels and currents. The focus of beach users on heavy surf as an indication of the rip current potential and the overconfidence in identifying a rip channel or current affects the spatial distribution of beach users and to some degree the location of rescues and drownings. While it can be quite difficult for the average beach user to identify rip channels and active rip currents, the results of the study suggest a need for further education efforts to reduce the rip hazard, particularly in areas where lifeguards are not permanently stationed.

Previous studies have shown that natural disasters, and hurricanes in particular, have led to more deaths than those usually documented in short post-storm surveys. Such indirect deaths, thought to be related to dietary, stress or pre-existing medical conditions, can exceed the number of direct deaths and may persist for weeks or even months beyond the event itself. In the present study, cumulative sum of deviations plots are used to quantify the number of direct and indirect deaths resulting from Hurricanes Charley, Frances, Ivan and Jeanne that made landfall in Florida in 2004. Results suggest that there was an elevated mortality for up to 2 months following each storm, resulting in a total of 624 direct and indirect deaths attributable to the storm. Trauma-related deaths that can be associated directly with the storm account for only ∼4% of the total storm-related mortality, while indirect mortality accounts for most storm-related deaths. Specifically, a large percentage of the elevated mortality was associated with heart (34%) and cancer-related deaths (19%), while diabetes (5%) and accident-related deaths (9%) account for a smaller but still significant percentage of the elevated mortality. The results further suggest that the elevated mortality was the result of additional deaths that would not have otherwise occurred within that 5 month period, and not simply a clustering of deaths that were inevitable between 1 August and 31 December 2004. The elevated mortality identified in this study is significantly greater than the official count of 31 direct and 113 indirect deaths resulting from the four hurricanes combined. This suggests a need for improved mortality counts and surveillance in order to better evaluate and identify effective prevention policies, and to identify preventable deaths.

Professional Science Master’s (PSM) degrees have been in existence in the USA for well over a decade. The PSM is a degree equivalent to the MBA for the sciences, and the idea is to integrate studies of natural sciences, math, management, and law to prepare students for professional positions outside academia. There are 128 PSM programs in the USA, mostly in the sciences, especially biosciences, and mostly online. In the environmental sciences, there are PSM programs at CSU/Chico, CSU/San Bernardino, American University, SIU/Edwardsville, Oregon State, North Texas, and Utah. The development of many of these PSM degree programs has been supported by grants over the past decade from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. PSMs have also been included in the stimulus bill also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
In Florida, a Sloan Foundation seed grant was received in 2009 to investigate the feasibility of developing a series of PSM degrees across the state. Five science sectors were selected to pilot the PSM degrees: Biotechnology, Forensics/Homeland Security, Healthcare, Simulation/Aviation, and Environmental Science/Sustainability. The University of West Florida, as one of eleven public Florida universities, was approached about assisting, and several departments—including Environmental Studies—responded.
The creation of a PSM in Northwest Florida is still a work in progress. A meeting of the Northwest Chapter of the Florida Association of Environmental Professionals (NWFAEP) in Pensacola in August 2009 was dedicated to discussion of creating a PSM degree and formulating a curriculum. A draft curriculum was developed in early 2010. A meeting of the Environmental Studies Advisory Board in April 2010 was to further refine the curriculum and perhaps establish a PSM advisory subgroup. Once a finalized curriculum is established, program approval and course development will be required before a Professional Science Master’s in Environmental Management & Sustainability becomes reality.

The Costa Maya is a vernacular coastal region of southeastern Quintana Roo (Mexico) and adjacent Ambergris Cay, Belize. As Mexico’s Caribbean coast suffered many growth pains associated with mass tourism development in Cancun and along the Riviera Maya, the Costa
Maya by contrast was projected for more sustainable development including low-density housing and ecotourism. Development so far has been concentrated in Puerto Costa Maya, where a cruise ship pier and terminal were built in 2001. The nearby beach resort (balneario) of Majahual became dependent upon the 10-12 shiploads of tourists that descended upon it every week. In spite of big development plans, the more remote beaches of the Costa Maya cater to fewer, but well-heeled ecotourists and dive tourists. Hurricane Dean made landfall in August 2007 as a category-5 storm, and economic recovery only began in late 2008 when the cruise ship pier re-opened and Majahual rebuilt. As of late 2009, the cruise-ship traffic had still not recovered to pre-Dean levels, and a global recession coupled with swine-flu and drug violence scares has lowered U.S. tourism to Mexico. To what degree new tourism infrastructure such as an international airport at Tulum, a proposed causeway from Chetumal to the beach, and a new resort complex at Xahuayxel will stimulate tourism on the Mexican Costa Maya and eventually lead to a coastal highway link with San Pedro, Belize is still unknown.

Hurricane Ivan, a Category-3 hurricane, came ashore near Gulf Shores, Alabama, on September 16, 2004. Santa Rosa Island, Florida, was within the Northeast quadrant of the storm and subject to surge heights in excess of 3 m. As a result the area suffered significant sediment loss (>200 m³ m⁻¹) and widespread overwash and breaching. Morphological changes were quantified by comparing LIDAR images collected before and after landfall. In general, the morphological changes exhibited an alongshore variation at a range of scales (<1 km), consistent with the variation in foredune height prior to the storm. Using multivariate statistics it is found that this variation not only depends on the height of the foredune (relative to the surge elevation) but also on the alongshore extent of the dune and the presence and relative location of the secondary dunes. This alongshore variation will affect the recovery of the dunes, reinforcing the observed patterns.