NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Dehcho Region

Tags: social sciences, permafrost, climate change, traditional knowledge, community based monitoring

Objective(s): To generate a fusion of leading-edge scientific and Indigenous knowledge on permafrost, and use it as a basis to co-develop new predictive decision support tools and innovative risk management strategies to inventory and manage permafrost and adapt to permafrost thaw.

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No.4512. The overall objective is to generate a fusion of leading-edge scientific and Indigenous knowledge on permafrost, and use it as a basis to co-develop new predictive decision support tools and innovative risk management strategies to inventory and manage permafrost and adapt to permafrost thaw. This program will co-develop with Indigenous communities, new initiatives for improving the monitoring, adaptation, understanding, and prediction of permafrost thaw and its impacts in the Dehcho. The research team will gather and synthesise the Indigenous Knowledge pertaining to permafrost and permafrost thaw in the Dehcho, and compile this information into the Permafrost Resources. For improving adaptation, the research team will develop and test new knowledge-based permafrost thaw adaptation strategies designed to lessen the impacts of such thaw, improve safety on the land and in communities, and safeguard infrastructure. To process understanding the research team will develop new knowledge on the permafrost thaw processes, rates and patterns causing the changes observed with a focus on critical (and understudied) lateral thaw of discontinuous permafrost. Print copies of the annual reports will be left in Band offices for community members to pick up, and will also be actively distributed by the researchers to previous participants during the process of each subsequent season’s research. The reports will also be shared electronically with the contacts in the Dehcho First Nation. The final report on study outcomes will be released along with community-friendly materials to relate the study findings in an accessible and engaging manner. Outcomes will also be shared in person by me in final meetings with the advisory committee and the communities. One-page plain-language summaries of any academic papers and other outputs (e.g. policy briefs) will be provided to all partners to coincide with the release of said publications. These, as well as copies of the publications themselves, will also be provided to all partners electronically where possible but also in print for sharing with community members via Band offices. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from September 15, 2019 to December 31, 2019.