NWT RESEARCH DATABASE

Regions: Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Sahtu Settlement Area, Dehcho Region, North Slave Region, Qikiqtaaluk Region

Tags: winter road, web portal

Objective(s): We will develop a user-friendly online portal that can synthesize and centralize, in one comprehensive network database, climate data and simulations, logistical and operational data, physical, socio-economic, and cultural aspects of winter road/trail networks across Canada’s North. This project assesses the unique multimodal northern transportation system, specifically regarding modal connectivity and operability of the networks in Canada’s North, mostly in the Northwest Territories (NWT).

Project Description: This licence has been issued for the scientific research application No. 5627. We will develop a user-friendly online portal that can synthesize and centralize, in one comprehensive network database, climate data and simulations, logistical and operational data, physical, socio-economic, and cultural aspects of winter road/trail networks across Canada’s North. This project assesses the unique multimodal northern transportation system, specifically regarding modal connectivity and operability of the networks in Canada’s North, mostly in the Northwest Territories (NWT). Currently, there is no comprehensive map of the winter surface transportation (i.e., roads, sea ice, and trails), either in print or online, that can house available data to support future work by governments, consultants, and researchers. Moreover, the various jurisdictions and users, including Territories, communities, and the private sector, have different ways of managing their operations, so they have their own maps and sources of information. These geopolitical limitations influence the data availability for a number of socio-economic aspects of winter road networks throughout the North such as operation, usage, goods movement, and interconnectivity with other modes of transportation. The online portal will combine an interactive map with several unique features (see in the Methodology section), and this will guide effective decision-making and policy prioritization on the management of winter roads, access roads, and trails in Canada’s North. The anticipated outcome for our project is the ability to optimize winter road usability and adaptation needs, as well as enhanced regional opportunities for socio-economic development from the expansion of transportation networks. Our proposed tool will support a greater holistic understanding of this unique multimodal northern transportation system, specifically regarding modal connectivity and operability in the Territories. We will conduct data collection for four sub-components: 1) climate component, 2) social, cultural, economic, and environmental components, 3) transportation operation and economic components, and 4) physical component. In particular, sub-component #2 requires human participants to complete the project. The descriptions of all sub-components are in the supporting document (see in the Detailed Methodology section). We will first develop a user-friendly online portal (tentative name as WRTDIP – Winter Road and Trail Data Information Portal) to host all collected data from all sub-components above. We plan to incorporate the winter road map and traditional atlas on the portal that show all winter surface transportation networks throughout the Territorial North, particularly in the NWT. In order to collect data for sub-component #2, we will develop online monitoring and survey tools as the citizen science project. The tentative names of the tools are as follows: Winter Road and Trail Watch, Winter Road User Community Online Survey, and Winter Road Management Interview (or Online Survey). Detailed descriptions of these tools are in the supporting document. We have been conducting informal and formal communication with government agencies in the NWT such as the Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT), the Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), local organizations such as the Northwest Territories of Association of Communities (NWTAC) and the Tli?cho Research and Training Institute (TRTI), and local communities who are reply on the winter road system such as Tulita and Norman Wells in the Sahtu region, Aklavik in the Inuvik region. These communications were made in-person, online, via email, and by phone. We will continue to practice in-person communication if no travel restrictions in the NWT. The fieldwork for this study will be conducted from: February 01 - December 31, 2025