Interaction Between Coastal and Riverine Processes and the Built Environment in Coastal Arctic Communities

NSF Award #2022562

Arctic research is needed to inform the economy, security and resilience of the Nation, the larger region and the globe. This award supported planning activities with clear potential to develop novel, leading edge research ideas and approaches to address Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) goals. The project focused on aspects of the natural environment and built environment in the context of important societal challenges and local community engagement.

Alaskan communities and their built environment are affected by permafrost thaw, coastal and river erosion, flooding, and other natural processes altered or accelerated by environmental changes. Arctic coastal communities in particular face compound threats from riverbank erosion, permafrost thaw, and increasing coastal storm impacts. As data collection campaigns in the Arctic are costly and often limited to periods of the year when weather affords access to sites of interest, significant gaps in data and information can result. This NNA planning grant employed two workshops designed to discover gaps in knowledge and develop associated research questions and hypotheses to address issues affecting coastal Arctic communities in Alaska. The virtual workshop (2021) invited participants from academia, state and federal agencies, and regional and village Alaskan Native corporations to participate in broad discussions with the goal to identify urgent research needs towards Arctic coastal community resilience. The second workshop was held in 2023 in Quinhagak, Alaska and focused on discussions between the research team and community representatives with the main goal of identifying current research and data gaps that hamper community resilience with regards to local riverine and coastal processes in the context of climate change.

Information from both workshops were synthesized within two reports. Reports were made available for comments to all participants and are currently in preparation for publication through the NSF-funded Arctic Data Center.

The project succeeded in establishing novel collaborations and relations between academic researchers from engineering, sciences, and social sciences, researchers and managers from state and federal agencies, regional Alaskan Native corporations, and Alaskan Native village corporations. A set of urgent research needs and questions was co-produced focusing on impacts of multi-hazard processes on the coastal Arctic built environment. A diverse and interdisciplinary research team was formed and expanded towards further research development.

Interested parties were informed and updated on novel data collection strategies suitable for deployment in rural Arctic Alaskan communities through co-production of data. Four graduate students and two undergraduate students contributed in different phases to the project. The students benefitted from interdisciplinary interaction with the researchers as well as workshop participants, enabling a unique insight into current data and research needs in coastal Arctic environments.

In summary, this planning grant succeeded in addressing its major research goals: 1) Research hypothesis and questions were developed through two workshops engaging a broad and diverse representation of the Arctic research community and local and regional interested parties. 2) Suitable data collection and monitoring strategies were developed, and some instruments were even demonstrated. 3) Key expertise needs were identified, and a broader research team was developed. 4) Arctic coastal community representatives and interested parties were engaged in all steps of this work.

NSF Award # 2240912

This project was aimed at connecting researchers, community members, and regional representatives through conversations about how climate change impacts the natural environment, in ways that in turn impact the built environmental in rural coastal Alaska. During the course of the project we hosted two workshops. The first workshop was held virtually (necessitated by the pandemic) and brought together participants from Nome, Alaska Native regional corporations, state and federal agencies (e.g., USACE), and researchers from the collaborative institutions to discuss impacts of concern. Impacts included riverbank and coastal erosion related to thawing permafrost and changing river dynamics; siltation (which impacts navigation, even for small boats); and destabilization of permafrost-rich soils leading to infrastructure damage (e.g., houses and utility lines). These results were summarized in a white paper which is available on the project website. In the final year of the project, the research team traveled to Quinhagak, Alaska and had roundtable discussions with tribal leaders and community science representatives to discuss primary issues of concern, including degradation of the barge landing. This landing is critical infrastructure which allows fuel shipments, and community members are concerned about trying to relocate it. The community graciously facilitated several boat deployments which allowed for some example data collection of water depths, suspended-sediment concentrations, water densities, and beach and tidal flat sediment properties. The example data and a report summarizing the conversations and data explanations was provided to the community. In keeping with the goals of the Navigating the New Arctic Program, the efforts of this two-year planning grant were designed to develop a community partnership and identify topics of community concern that could be addressed through a future research grant. In all the project successfully brought together different members from rural Alaskan and nationwide research communities to share knowledge and jointly develop plans for scientific research projects with direct community benefit.
 

NSF Award # 2022583

• Geotechnical data collection is challenging in highly dynamic coastal environments, and particularly in the Arctic.
• A review of geotechnical and geophysical data collection methods suggested that the use of small-scale and portable devices simplifies geotechnical data collection, while still providing key information, particularly for the investigation of active sediment dynamics. However, coring, drilling, and Cone Penetration Testing may be needed to characterize deeper and/or ice-rich sediments.
• Data fusion with geoacoustic methods for seabed characterization and with remotely sensed data for emerged coastal environments offers pathways for optimization and simplification of data collection, possibly enabling larger spatial coverage, temporal studies, and the increased involvement of local communities and stakeholders in data collection.
• The natural processes associated with climate change in the Alaskan Arctic including warming air and seas; precipitation changes; colder winters; increased flood events; changing vegetation and wildlife patterns; and accelerated coastal and riverine erosion are significantly affecting Alaskan communities and their infrastructure. Many of these effects tend to compound on each other, thus intensifying their effects and impacts.
• While our understanding of coastal effects of climate change in the Alaskan Arctic is increasing substantially, we know nearly nothing about riverine effects of climate change.
• Coastal and riverine Alaskan communities are significantly struggling to adapt to the effects of climate change in the Arctic. The substantial amount of uncertainty associated with a general lack of knowledge, lack of data, and lack of communication are exacerbating this struggle.
• Assessing the risks associated with climate change and developing an effective, practical, and viable hazard mitigation plan is currently out of reach for most Alaskan communities due to social inequity, government inefficiency, and a lack of resources.
• While there are numerous scientists attempting to study and understand the science behind climate change in the Alaskan Arctic and its natural effects on the local ecosystem, their methods, technology, and frequency/infrequency of study often create significant technical and social challenges. These scientists also have historically worked independent from the local communities that are directly being affected by the very climate change effects that are being studied, and generational and institutional knowledge of the locals is not being considered or incorporated to the extent that it could.
• An apparent imbalance exists in multiple parts of this complex topic. Many communities are fatigued by research while some do not receive any attention at all. Most of the research performed in the Arctic is focused on increasing our scientific understanding of the natural processes at work, but does not impact or improve the lives and wellbeing of the local residents at all. What little research is focused on improving the lives and wellbeing of the local residents rarely sees community implementation. While government resources exist to assist Alaskan communities that are impacted by climate change, few of those communities have the resources and/or education to access them. Finally, in the few instances where risk assessments are performed and/or hazard mitigation plans are developed, community leaders rarely have the resources and/or training to implement them.
• The bottom line is that local Alaskan residents in coastal and riverine communities are being significantly impacted by climate change in terms of infrastructure, culture, economy, and subsistence.