Rodrigues Island, being a small Island Developing State (SIDS) in the Indian Ocean, is increasingly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly rising sea levels and recurrent storm surges. The motivation for this study stems from the need to safeguard Rodrigues’ socio-economic activities, which are intricately linked to its geophysical landscape and ecosystem services. This study employs a geospatial-based approach to identify the coastal areas most at risk and to provide a foundation for tailored adaptation strategies. Using predefined scenarios established by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and storm surge models, the research projects sea-level rise for Rodrigues over the next century. Approximately 1.45 km2 of terrestrial land are exposed to flooding under SSP5-8.5, which represents a loss equivalent to above 1.34

This study explores land cover change in Mauritius from 1994 to 2023, focusing on the decline of sugarcane cultivation and the expansion of built-up areas. Using multi-temporal satellite imagery (SPOT and Sentinel-2) and GIS technologies, the research reveals a sharp reduction in sugarcane coverage, from 40.39

Mauritius, a vibrant island biodiversity hotspot in the Indian Ocean, is at a critical juncture where rapid anthropogenic development is significantly eroding its vital ecosystem services. Historically, the island’s natural landscape, once dominated by extensive native forests, has undergone profound land transformations since the colonial era. Initial clearing for sugarcane plantations, followed by repurposing for urban expansion and conversion of remaining agricultural land to scrubland, has demonstrably diminished the island’s ecological resilience. This study quantifies the tangible impact of these human-driven land use changes, revealing an annual decline in ecosystem service value of USD 4.2 million, plummeting from an aggregated USD 135.5 million in 1994 to USD 131.3 million in 2024. This reduction is primarily attributed to a corresponding decrease in critical agricultural and forestland extents, driven by the expansion of the built environment. While marginal increases were observed in the ecosystem service values of scrubland and water bodies, they are insufficient to offset the substantial losses. The quantification of Mauritius’ natural capital through this ecosystem service valuation serves as a crucial baseline. It offers a robust framework to track and monitor the island’s development pathway and its inherent impacts on natural assets within the context of the Anthropocene. Our findings underscore the urgent need for Mauritius to implement a more comprehensive and robust natural capital accounting system.

Small islands have long been considered as one of the most drought fragile regions. Analysis of rainfall trends from 1931 to 2020 in Mauritius reveals a significant decline in rainfall, reducing surface and aquifer recharge by up to 22.3

Storm tides, which combine sea level rise (SLR), astronomical tides, and storm surges generated by tropical cyclones, pose significant threats to coastal zones, leading to flooding and substantial damage to property and infrastructure.There is a clear upward trend in the frequency of storms reaching tropical cyclone strength. A notable example is Cyclone Belal, which struck Mauritius on January 2024, during high tide, causing extensive infrastructure damage. This underscores the importance of conducting risk assessments to identify vulnerable areas and develop risk reduction strategies. However, quantitative risk assessments of storm tides are often challenging due to the lack of long-term projections. To address this, we developed a GIS-based flood model for Mauritius to simulate inundation areas and quantify the assets exposed to flooding. Under current conditions, the estimated damage exposure from extreme coastal flood events with return periods of 50-500 years is significant, with 6.2 % and 27.1 % of the area inundated, respectively. By 2100, damage exposure associated with these events is projected to increase by a factor of 1.1, with minimal variation between sea-level rise scenarios (0.3m). However, by 2200 and 2300, damage exposure is expected to rise by factors of 3.1 and 6.6, respectively. In the worst-case scenario for 2500, Mauritius could experience maximum inundation of 66.3 km2, with buildings covering 5.02 km2 submerged. Additionally, this study presents a detemporalized inundation scenario to assess impacts from any coastal flood event. This approach enables the identification of critical thresholds (1.5 m and 4.5 m) and, beyond which significant increases in damage exposure are likely, and allows for evaluating adaptation strategies against user-defined levels of change, rather than relying solely on predefined scenarios. These findings highlight the urgent need for strategic sectoral interventions to address the widespread consequences of coastal inundation, especially in light of critical thresholds for remedial action.

Small islands in the active tropical cyclone basin of the South West Indian Ocean are among the most exposed to climate-induced coastal inundations due to their geographical positions and low elevations above mean sea level. Yet, these associated disproportionate impacts are still largely understudied. A geospatial-based approach is used in the current study to identify highly vulnerable areas likely to be exposed to coastal inundation over the next century in Mauritius, Comoros, and Seychelles. This study reveals that Mauritius experiences the maximum inundation of 54.1 km2 while Seychelles encounters the highest risk to coastal settlements equivalent to 9.92% of the total population under the worst-case scenario of peak surge, maximum sea level rise, and high tide. An assessment of the economic ramifications stemming from storm surges is also presented and the analysis shows that a 100-year return period storm tide event could inflict maximum direct losses attaining 30.9% of Mauritius', 34.2% of Seychelles', and 6.9% of Comoros' Gross Domestic Product. These findings underscore the urgent need for strategic interventions to adapt to the far-reaching impacts of coastal inundations. In response to these challenges, a multifaceted coastal storm management strategy that encompasses technological innovation, social inclusivity measures, adaptation actions, reinforced governance structures, and pivotal legal and economic reforms is put forward. This approach holds promise for replication in other similarly vulnerable regions worldwide, thereby shaping the trajectory of climate adaptation, especially small islands.

To limit the detrimental impacts of climate change, large-scale and rapid decarbonization is required. China announced their plan to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and to reach neutrality by 2060, which faces many challenges including rising energy consumption and a large, and still growing coal-based electricity generation capacity. This study employs mixed methods to explore a portfolio of climate policies related to the transport and energy sectors for two leading Chinese cities: Beijing and Hong Kong. Following this, 32 expert interviews were conducted with four stakeholder groups in both cities to canvas opinions on the most important policies for decarbonization. With the aim to understand how local policy measures can be prioritized for disproportionately large emissions reductions, the Sensitive Intervention Points (SIPs) framework was applied to identify city-level policy interventions with the potential for high impact, speed, feasibility, persistence, and low risk, based on these expert interviews and literature reviews. With all attributes combined, leveraging the global cost declines in renewable energy was identified as a shared accelerated pathway for both cities, facilitated by policies to promote the import of low-carbon energy and accelerating the electrification of transport. Alignments were found between this final list of SIPs and policies perceived as important by the experts, indicating that SIPs are generally intuitive, with alternative policy prioritizations likely influenced by additional factors such as the national agenda, budgets, and the availability of co-benefits.

The Small Island Developing State of Mauritius relies heavily on fossil fuel imports to satisfy the energy requirements of its population. A detailed study has been performed to investigate the photovoltaic potential at the city, district, and country levels in order to provide some tools that will facilitate an informed decision process to enhance energy security of the island using a geospatial-based methodology. Our theoretical computations indicate that the deployment of rooftop PV panels at the city level can contribute to about 3.6% of the annual electricity demand of the island. More significantly, deployment at the district and national levels have the potential to help meet half and twice, respectively, the electricity requirements of the country. In our current study an attempt has been made to perform an optimization analysis suggest a strategy for large scale deployment of rooftop photovoltaic systems to maximize high energy generations. The policy implications of such large-scale deployments are discussed with an emphasis on the need to increase the storage capacity to ensure reliability and flexibility of energy generation from solar energy technologies.

Significant climate finance gaps exist for small islands in transitioning to net zero, as climate commitments far outweigh the government budget and international financing. To create alignment between resource allocation and climate commitments, a roadmap for strategic and cost-effective decarbonization is of supreme importance. This paper presents a geographic carbon accounting model which incorporates emissions from electricity, transportation, food systems, and human respiration, whilst accounting for the carbon uptake by the terrestrial biosphere in view of identifying high-intensity aggregated emissions estimated in the range of 200-215 ktCO2e in the coastal and inland urban regions of the remote island of Mauritius. An estimated 4641 ktCO2e, representing 79.4% of overall emissions, has been observed to originate from buildings, food, and waste systems. About 1150 ktCO2e, accounting for a share of 19.7%, is derived from transport systems. The study advocates for the enhanced participation of local authorities to better contribute to climate governance, whilst supporting legislative, financial, technological, and behavioural reforms. Despite the relatively low sequestration potential of forests replacing all non-habitable lands, which is estimated at 1002 ktCO2e and representing about 17.1% of annual net emissions, afforestation programmes are encouraged owing to multiple ecosystem services provided by trees.

Coral reefs play a critical role in the socio-economic development of oceanic islands, besides offering coastal protection against the destructive forces of the sea under storm conditions. A Multi-Criteria Decision Making-based geospatial model is used which combine highly influential climatic, ecological, and anthropogenic reef degradation factors in view of revealing regions of high coral reef vulnerabilities to inform ecosystems conservation and management. Further investigation of the coastal seawater temperature trend revealed a rise in sea surface temperature approximating 0.66 °C over the 2003-2020 period as compared to the 1985-2003 interval, with a decadal temperature rise of 0.16 °C reported to be higher than the global average. The bleaching threshold in the region is frequently exceeded during the postmillennial period, further reducing coral fitness. Finally, management strategies are proposed here, which include the adequate design of Marine Protected Area networks, and the implementation of policy strategies for fertilizer use, sustainable coastal development projects, and control of reef predator population. The insights in this paper are expected to be applicable in the reef management of other oceanic islands.

Information on the components of solar radiation is key to the implementation of solar energy projects. It is highly sought by policymakers, energy planners, engineers, architects, and investors, as well as researchers and practitioners in the field of solar energy. In the current study, spatial and temporal analyses of the main components of solar radiation are conducted which reveal mean global horizontal irradiance, direct normal irradiance, and diffused irradiance of 178.5 kWh/m², 187.9 kWh/m², and 58.1 kWh/m², respectively, over the 20-year period analyzed. Spatial analysis reveal that the northern plain of Mauritius favors the implementation of solar energy projects owing to high global and direct irradiances. High diffusion of incoming irradiance is observed to occur on the central plateau region and attributed to the presence of increased moisture content as a result of cloud convection occurring in the vicinity. A mean clearness index value of 0.6214 has been obtained over Mauritius, which is indicative of intermediate to clear sky conditions prevailing on the island. The clear sky conditions and high insolation are propitious conditions for solar technology implementation in Mauritius.

An investigation of five meteorologically-distinct regions based on topography and wind directions is performed, to classify day-to-day variations of solar irradiances into physically-sensible regimes. Descriptive statistical tools which include standard deviation, coefficient of variation, quartiles, minimum, maximum, skewness, and kurtosis are utilized to measure the central tendency and variability of recorded global solar irradiance values for the regions of Barkly, Flacq, Plaine Sophie, Reduit, and Richelieu. Seasonal analysis is performed and reveals that the summer season witnesses on average, higher insolation values at all sites while the winter season reflects a relatively stable solar climate, characteristic of constant solar energy resource for efficient energy conversion. An inter-comparison study on annual scale indicates that the North-West regions of Barkly and Richelieu have inherently higher solar energy potentials with clear to lightly scattered sky cover for about 275 days with global solar irradiance above a threshold value of 300 W/m2• The annual average daily irradiance at Barkly and Richelieu are 371.8 W/m2 and 374.2 W/m2, respectively, favoring the development of solar energy projects.

The identification of offshore wind farms necessitates the consideration of multiple factors, including technical, social, economic, and ecological ones, amongst others. In the current study, a multi-criterial model is applied by incorporating wind speed, water depth, grid proximity, tourism activities, and marine spatial constraint factors to determine optimum sites for offshore wind farm placements in the Republic of Mauritius. The North-Eastern region, off the coast of Grand Gaube, has been found to be promising, with an annual electricity potential of 1650 GWh, owing to favourable wind regime of about 7.95 m/s at 100 m height. Moreover, the site location, at an average water depth of 38 m, favours the adoption of conventional jacket foundation. A levelized cost analysis reveals that the electricity generated from the offshore farm would be priced at 163/MWh, which makes it cost-competitive as compared to heavy fuel oil at218/MWh. A scenario looking at the installation of a 608 MW offshore wind plant, which represents the theoretical maximum that may be attained in the optimum region identified, revealed that exploitation of this site has the potential to decrease up to 1.5 times the share of imported fuel oil and diesel for electricity needs. Besides providing guidelines for the implementation of offshore wind technology in Mauritius, the paper reflects on important gaps for adoption, including factors that seek to ease policy uptake.

Proper land planningPlanning and managementManagement in terms of agro-suitability of crops and adequate placement of solar photovoltaicPhotovoltaic and thermalThermal technologies require a knowledge of how the solar insolationInsolation parameter varies on spatialSpatial and temporal scales. In this chapter, we explore methodologies including satelliteSatellite remote sensing, Numerical WeatherWeather Prediction (NWP) model, and regressionRegression analysis that could enable countries to map the spatio-temporal variations in solar radiationSolar radiation. These techniques would offer researchers a route to the proper mapping of the solar resourceSolar resource potential for effectiveEffective policyPolicy decision makingDecision making.

Identification of optimumOptimum locations for the placements of solar photovoltaicPhotovoltaic power plants necessitates the consideration of multiple factorsFactors, ranging from climatic suitability, technical appropriateness of the land and the legalLegal conforming use of the chosen site. In this chapter, we propose a framework that would enable countries to efficiently harness solar energySolar energy through the optimal location of solar farmsSolar farm whilst accounting for social, technical, legalLegal, environmental and climatologicalFactors factors.

Forecasting the short-term solar irradiance is of paramount importance for efficiently planning the electricity distribution in the transmission network to ensure the smooth running of solar power plants. In this paper, a seasonal ARIMA model is implemented for predicting the global solar irradiance in Mauritius for a time horizon of 24 hours. The proposed technique uses three days historical irradiance measurements to predict the next day values in time steps of one hour. The model has been observed to work well in both cloudy and sunny sky regimes, with a higher predictive accuracy noted on average for the sunny sky conditions. A maximum coefficient of determination attaining 97.7% has been observed for one of the sunny day test-case while a maximum value of 98.0% for the coefficient of determination has been noted for one of the cloudy day scenarios. Coupling of the developed model to a solar farm has been discussed with the suggested approach for regularization of electricity distribution in the grid, despite occasional drops in the electricity generation curve arising from the movement of journeying clouds above the facility.

The accurate estimation of irradiance and PV electricity output necessitate costly equipment that need regular maintenance, thereby inflating the capital cost of investment of solar PV system. In this paper, a cloud-based regression model is implemented to estimate irradiance and electricity parameters using cloud cover data. Testing the model in a site having sky regimes characterized as clear sky with scattered clouds revealed the accurate performance of the model. Daily estimations of irradiance were performed to acceptable levels of accuracies, with root mean square error of 90.2 W/m 2 and correlation coefficient value of 0.77. Even higher accuracies were reported for monthly mean estimations of irradiance, with root mean square error of 60.9 W/m 2 and correlation coefficient value of 0.94. Using the monthly mean irradiance estimates, the PV electricity generation output was estimated and compared to simulated performance on NREL PV Watts for a 20 kW DC system at Universite des Mascareignes. Relatively high levels of accuracies have been reported for the Black model with root mean square error of about 149 Wh and correlation of 0.92.

This book provides a comprehensive guide on how geographic information systems (GIS) can be used to optimize solar energy resources

This chapter lays the theoretical foundation governing solar radiationSolar radiation processes and variations on both spatialSpatial and temporal scales. The origin of the insolationInsolation parameter in the Sun’s core, its journey to the Earth’s atmosphereAtmosphere, the interaction with the atmosphereAtmosphere, and its conversion into electricityElectricity in photovoltaicPhotovoltaic modules are discussed. The spatialSpatial and temporal distributions of the insolationInsolation parameter arising from seasonal/latitudinal variations and cloudCloud cover effects are explored. The work presented in this chapter aims to provide guidance to knowledge seekers and enthusiasts who aspire to understand the solar energySolar energy process.