Heightened concern

Fears abound that the proliferation of multi-storey apartment complexes and high-rise commercial buildings in Kingston and St Andrew in recent years could lead to catastrophic scenes as Hurricane Beryl barrels towards Jamaica.

The centre of Beryl was forecast to move across the southeastern and central Caribbean Sea on Monday through Tuesday and is expected to pass near Jamaica on Wednesday.

The looming weather system has sparked concerns among urban and regional planners, who are wary that the uptick in construction across the capital city could lead to notable adverse consequences.

The Kingston and St Andrew Municipal Corporation (KSAMC) approved 590 development applications of the 847 it received in 2021, according to the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica. It received 676 development applications in 2022, approving 395.

It is not clear how many of the approvals were for new developments versus expansions and neither is it clear how many are multi-storey buildings.

Efforts by The Gleaner to reach KSAMC CEO Robert Hill and City Engineer Xavier Chevannes for comment and precise figures were unsuccessful.

“A number of these new developments have put solid walls between them and the rest of Jamaica, which is a problem,” Dr Patricia Green, a registered architect and conservationist, told The Gleaner.

Green explained that in a hurricane the wind blows in two directions – one direction ahead of the eye and another after the eye passes.

She said Jamaica’s traditional way of designing and laying out cities has been to make the partitions between properties permeable. She said this allows the wind to move in a smooth direction over the land continuously.

Now, she said several developments have constructed solid and high walls that become barriers, creating a microclimate around them.

“This can create havoc,” Green warned.

Microclimate, in this context, refers to the atmospheric conditions affecting an individual structure or a small group of structures in an area. In short, this is environmental resistance.

“So you have a microclimate going in one direction when the hurricane is coming, then when the eye passes, the microclimate begins to act in the other direction,” she said.

“I’m anxious to see what the environment will do because it could create all kinds of local or microclimates on the land and probably these walls will collapse. We don’t know. Effectively, what they should do is the walls should become permeable,” she added.

She described this as a major landscape concern.

Further, she said because much of the lands that house apartments in and around Kingston and St Andrew are made up of hard landscapes – concretes and pavements – water is unable to percolate into the ground, increasing run-off.

In effect, Green said every neighbourhood in the Corporate Area has its microclimate taking place.

She said in the event of a hurricane, apartment occupants are being encouraged to keep the window on the leeward (opposite) side of the building open as the system approaches. Windows on the other side should be opened when the direction changes. This, she said, will allow the release of pressure.

Green said in several cities worldwide before construction, planning exercises and simulation tests are done. Technical advice should also be given on how to execute projects.

This allows high-rise buildings to function in adverse weather conditions without creating microclimates.

“You just don’t willy-nilly tell everybody that they can build things all over the place,” said Green.

Urban planning consultant Professor Carol Archer said should Hurricane Beryl, which climbed to a Category 5 last night, hit the island in any way, the city will be tested.

Archer noted that there is no way to properly test these new constructions because it is not clear whether they are built to code. She said there are no code regulations.

“The buildings that are being built now are really being done under the old codes because we do not have the existing regulations for the new building codes; they are being assessed,” she said.

Archer said the new building codes will require that buildings are constructed to withstand Category 5 hurricanes – the fiercest storms on the scale.

“We can only hope that developers have taken this into consideration,” she said.

kimone.francis@gleanerjm.com