Caridad (Cari) Ballesteros is a multidisciplinary researcher in coastal risks. Originally from Spain, Cari did her PhD at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in Barcelona with a focus on developing methodologies to assess and manage multiple coastal risks at different temporal and spatial scales along the Catalan coast (Spain). Since moving to the UK in 2017, Cari was a Postdoctoral Researcher at Bournemouth University (BU) working on the GCRF-funded Rising from the Depths network project. This project promoted the social, environmental and economic benefits of marine cultural heritage in East Africa. Her main role was to identify the main coastal hazards and climate change risks in the region impacting coastal and marine cultural heritage. With this focus, Cari created the first Index of Vulnerability to Coastal Change (IVCC) for East Africa, combining an index of exposure to natural hazards and a social vulnerability index.
During her time at BU, Cari was also the Principal Investigator of CoastSnap Mozambique, the first citizen science project of its kind in Africa for beach monitoring, in collaboration with the Department of Civil Engineering at Eduardo Mondlane University and the Faculty of Social and Humanities Sciences at UNILURIO. In 2019, she travelled to Mozambique to set up the project, to run a series of workshops to disseminate the objectives and to engage stakeholders and the wider society.
Cari joins the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change within the PROTECT project, working with Prof Robert Nicholls in collaboration with the Berlin-based Global Climate Forum on the implications of new SLR projections for coastal management at global and regional scales, in terms of consequences, risks, and adaptation actions across the full range of timescales – from 2020 to 2500.
