Northern Knowledge for Resilience, Sustainable Environments and Adaptation in Coastal Communities (NORSEACC)

Leslie King and Astrid Ogilvie received a grant from Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to study responses to environmental and social change in northern coastal communities.

Northern Knowledge for Resilience, Sustainable Environments and Adaptation in Coastal Communities (NORSEACC) is an interdisciplinary, international research project that will investigate the role of knowledge and governance in promoting resilience and adaptation to rapid environmental and social change in northern coastal communities.
Arctic and sub-Arctic regions are experiencing changes that represent challenges of unprecedented scale to northern communities. Studies point to several common factors: climate change; access to resources; outmigration; shifting resource bases; and traditional livelihoods under stress. Sea ice and glaciers are melting, allowing oil and gas exploration and increased shipping, at the same time, depriving Inuit and other hunters from reaching traditional hunting sites and travel routes. Warming of the earth is causing shifts in marine and terrestrial ecosystems, resulting in changes in the composition and distribution of key species vital to the traditional activities of natural resource-dependent communities. Northern regions are facing rapid increases in contaminants, transported in both air and ocean currents, that accumulate in the food chain. The NORSEACC project will document the ways in which Arctic processes and changes create significant impacts both within and beyond the Arctic, including northern coastal communities in lower latitudes and societies globally. These developments raise challenges for the transfer of knowledge across generations, and act as stressors for the practice of traditional livelihoods. Although many of the issues require policy solutions at a national or international level, local governments play a vital role in adapting to ongoing and projected changes in society and the environment.
The overarching goal of NORSEACC is to increase knowledge concerning the consequences of climatic and other changes and apply that knowledge to strategies for connecting and integrating social-ecological changes and governance responses. Analyses will be undertaken of how climatic and other ecological changes, in combination with social-economic changes affect settlement patterns, landscape changes, ecosystems, and livelihoods. We shall identify impacts of rapid change on Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples and communities, as well as the role of governance and knowledge in mediating and ensuring sustainable responses to change and impacts. The primary research question is: How can governance systems be designed and implemented to incorporate local, traditional and scientific knowledge in order to promote resilience and adaptation in the face of rapid social and ecological change? In Canada, Iceland, Norway, and Scotland the research team will work with the study sites in coastal communities to identify and communicate promising practices to respond to these changes and undertake a variety of knowledge mobilization strategies (workshops, journal articles, presentations, websites, popular media) to promote sustainable practices.
NORSEAC will be conducted simultaneously in the four countries over four years. In year one, we shall refine the methodology, identify data gaps and convene a workshop with partners, collaborators, students and research assistants in the case study communities/regions. We will also finalize the choice of case studies locations for each country, and conduct data gathering and analyses for the initial three case study sites. Years two and three will focus on data gathering and analyses of the remaining two case studies. Synthesis and knowledge mobilization of results will occur in all four years of the project including engagement of policy makers and community members and will form a major aspect of the final year.