Resilient Alaska Native Communities: Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Risk Assessment Through Local Monitoring

Alaska Institute For Justice, Anchorage AK

Investigators

Abstract

Natural hazards in the Arctic are dramatically impacting the health and well-being of Alaska Native communities. In 2009, the US Government Accountability Office found that 31 communities were imminently threatened by flooding and erosion (GAO 2009). Erosion and repeated extreme weather events damage infrastructure, including health clinics and water and sewage treatment facilities. Saline intrusion and thawing permafrost impact access to potable water. In the most extreme cases, accelerating rates of erosion are life-threatening and are causing Alaska Native communities to choose to relocate their entire community. Relocation involves the construction of community infrastructure and ensuring that community health and well-being are maintained or improved. This award supports an EAGER research project that has the potential to transform understandings and support the adaptive capacity of Alaska Native communities experiencing the impacts of environmental change on their health and well-being. Through this project the investigator, PI Bronen, will address one of the most urgent challenges facing Alaska Native communities impacted by natural hazards by constructing a methodology to determine whether and when community relocation needs to occur to protect the lives and livelihoods of community residents. The researcher will work with four Alaska Native communities and governmental and non-governmental organizations to design and implement a methodological framework that can assess when protection in place is no longer possible and relocation is required. It is expected that the communities will represent a continuum of adaptation responses including "protection in place," migration of some infrastructure, and relocation. The broader impact of this project is to provide a model for the design and implementation of a relocation institutional framework that protects the health and well-being of community residents and can be applied by other communities facing displacement because of environmental change. Community engagement and empowerment are non-trivial, multi-dimensional challenges; however they are critical to any process aiming to improve the adaptive capacity of Alaska Native communities. By learning from and co-producing knowledge with communities, the research team seeks to enhance Alaska Native communities' capacity to assess needs and develop adaptation strategies than can protect their health and well-being. In addition, the project will facilitate coordination between community members and governmental organizations and university researchers that might be able to provide critical technical or financial assistance.