NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: North Slave Region

Tags: social sciences, infrastructure planning, climate adaptation, infrastructure

Objective(s): The purpose of this research is to collect information that will lead to a better understanding of how built environment infrastructure is critical to the provision of services to the residents, industry, and government in the NWT, and how the effects of climate change may impact the provision of these services.

Project Description: The purpose of this research is to collect information that will lead to a better understanding of how built environment infrastructure is critical to the provision of services to the residents, industry, and government in the NWT, and how the effects of climate change may impact the provision of these services. A case study based approach forms a central nexus for the project in terms of identifying how the timely and rigorous development, renewal, application and enforcement of relevant codes and standards might be facilitated. The case studies will focus on four different types of physical infrastructure; transport infrastructures (including roadways, railways, airports, and ports), buildings (including residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial), energy infrastructure (including fuel storage facilities, dams for hydro-electricity generation, and electrical transmission), and containment infrastructures (primarily earth dams used to contain and/or protect water supplies, waste sites, or mine tailings. Both public and private infrastructures are considered. In order to develop policy relevant information most representative of Northern conditions, ‘key informants’ that can provide Northern perspectives (both from the local and ‘global’ scales) will be queried. Two different groups have been identified to focus upon; the users of the services provided by these infrastructures, and the persons responsible for their design, construction, or maintenance. The information sought will not be private or sensitive, nor will it be related to matters of cultural, religious or gender-specific in nature. The research team will be led by Dr. David Malcolm. Based in Yellowknife, Dr. Malcolm brings to the project many years of experience to address the conditions unique to the North. Dr. Malcolm will undertake telephone and face-to-face interviews, and conduct a one or two day focus group session in Yellowknife, all in an effort to collect information that will lead to a better understanding of how built environment infrastructure is critical to the provision of services to the residents, industry, and government, and how the effects of climate change may impact the provision of these services. Because of his extensive contact base, interviewees will be selected by Dr. Malcolm with input from the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy (NRTEE). The interviewees will be asked straightforward questions intended to generate open discussion. The information will largely be of a technical nature and common knowledge to individuals responsible for the provision of services (examples: government, manufacturing, utilities) or the built environment infrastructure (examples: public works, transportation, energy). The data collected will form part of the final report that the Canadian Standards Association (CSA) will submit to the NRTEE. The findings will be specifically formulated in order to allow the NRTEE to better inform governments and other stakeholders on a suite of options for the advancement of policy and measures in order to better safeguard and protect human populations, economic interests and the environment in the Canadian North, by ensuring that infrastructure is and remains safe, reliable, effective and efficient in the face of the changing climate. Fieldwork will be conducted from December 19, 2007 to February 29, 2008 in Yellowknife.