26 March 2025 | 10:30 - 12:00 (MDT)
Open Session - HYBRID
Room: UMC Second Floor - 247
Organisers: Davin Holen (University of Alaska Fairbanks); Guangqing Chi (Pennsylvania State University)
Zoom link to the Session (password-protected)
The password needed to connect to the session will be distributed the day prior to the start of the sessions to all registered conference participants. Further guidelines on how to participate virtually in the ASSW 2025 can be found on the ASSW 2025 website.
Session Description:
Climate change is a slow-moving disaster. In the North, coastal predominately indigenous communities are experiencing climate impacts, including thawing permafrost leading to coastal land loss and disappearance of lakes, extreme storms causing land loss and coastal inundation, and declining sea ice leading to unsafe traveling and hunting conditions. One response to these challenges is to relocate the entire community, which is problematic. Complete relocation to a new location means learning about new hunting, fishing, and gathering areas, distancing the community and culture from ancestral homelands. Relocation is also prohibitively expensive. Alternatively, communities may choose to adapt in place, slowly moving to safer ground close by as funding becomes available. Coupled social and economic factors may also influence individuals and families to consider moving to urban centers. Compounding climate impacts may provide a tipping point that spurs migration. Research on Northern out-migration and relocation has been minimal, even for the most threatened communities. This session examines the drivers and processes of relocation, adapting in place, and the compounding factors influencing migration. It will also examine aspects of environmental justice in how federal and state resources for these remote, predominately Alaska Native rural communities, are not always equitably distributed. Finally, it also calls for stories and narratives of the experiences of people in the North dealing with these choices.
Instructions for Speakers: Oral presentations in this session should be at most 8-minutes in length, with an additional 2-3 minutes for questions (unless more detailed instructions are provided by session conveners). See more detailed presenter instructions here.
Oral Presentations:
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unfold_moreCompounding factors of climate migration: Environmental justice, equity, and the slow erosion of rural Alaska — Davin Holen
Davin Holen 1
1 University of Alaska FairbanksFormat: Oral in-person
Abstract:
Climate change is a slow-moving disaster. Our first peoples, along the coasts and waterways of Alaska, have always been successful at their adaptive strategies, building complex cultures dependent on coastal resources. Coastal and riverine, predominately indigenous communities in Alaska, are experiencing the most dramatic climate impacts, including thawing permafrost leading to coastal land loss and disappearance of lakes, extreme storms creating coastal inundation even miles inland, and declining sea ice leading to unsafe traveling and hunting conditions. Moving to a new location means learning about new hunting, fishing, and gathering areas, distancing your family from their ancestral homelands and kinship network. Migration in Alaska is often the result of a tipping point; impacts of climate may not be the deciding factor but a contributing factor. Often, families may choose to migrate to urban centers because of compounding social factors. This presentation will examine the compounding factors of migration. It will also examine aspects of environmental justice in how permanent communities were initially placed by the federal government and how federal and state resources for these remote, predominately Alaska Native rural communities are not equitably distributed. Instead, resources are often focused on urban road-connected communities in Alaska. Families then face choices. Stay in their community that is literally slowly eroding away, or move to urban areas where there are greater economic opportunities for the parents and education opportunities for their children. But at what loss?
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unfold_morePursuing continuance in the face of multiple, diverse challenges: Considering the consequences of connectivity for social resilience among Alaskan communities — Erika Gavenus
Erika Gavenus 1; Guangqing Chi 1
1 Pennsylvania State UniversityFormat: Oral in-person
Abstract:
Across Alaska, as in other regions of the Arctic, Indigenous peoples face multiple challenges to their collective continuance. While some challenges are environmental in nature, such as coastal inundation or riverbank erosion associated with thawing permafrost, others have deep social and political roots, such as the dispossession of lands and resources. Similarly, some disturbances could be considered as pulses, such as an earthquake, while others could be classified as presses, such as declining abundance of wild foods. The tendency to study and consider these challenges and disturbances independently belies the experiences lived by people in these communities, the very real potential for these challenges to compound each other and complicate responses, and the necessity to better understand practices, protocols, and structures that promote the general social resilience that has enabled these communities to already withstand and recover from tremendous disruptions. Our current studies offer a rare opportunity to consider how these dynamics might differ between rural settings on and off the road system, and how connectivity can contribute to social resilience while also presenting further challenges. Specifically, in collaboration with Indigenous communities of the Bristol Bay and Copper River regions, we are investigating the implications of road access for food security, migration, and resilience to climate hazards. This work aims to support the efforts of local communities to strengthen and maintain their sources of resilience, and to contribute theoretically to academic understandings of connectivity and its contribution to—or consequences for—social resilience.
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unfold_moreClimate Impacts on Migration in the Arctic North America: Existing Evidence and Research Recommendations — Guangqing Chi
Guangqing Chi 1; Shuai Zhou 2; Megan Mucioki 1; Jessica Miller 1; Ekrem Korkut 1; Lance Howe 3; Junjun Yin 1; Davin Holen 4; Heather Randell 5; Ayse Akyildiz 1; Kathleen Halvorsen 6; Lara Fowler 1; James Ford 7; Ann Tickamyer 1
1 Pennsylvania State University; 2 Cornell; 3 University of Alaska Anchorage; 4 University of Alaska Fairbanks; 5 University of Minnesota; 6 Michigan Technological University; 7 University of LeedsFormat: Oral in-person
Abstract:
The Arctic is experiencing a rapid temperature increase, four times faster than lower-latitude regions, disproportionately affecting rural, coastal, and Indigenous communities. These areas confront multiple urgent climate challenges. Adaptation strategies encompass out-migration, community relocation, and enhancing resilience, yet research in this critical area is notably limited, particularly for the most vulnerable communities. This paper presents a comprehensive review of environmental stressors and contextual factors influencing migration decisions in the North American Arctic. While migration is primarily driven by job opportunities, education, healthcare, cultural, and infrastructural factors, factors such as family, culture, safety, subsistence life, and community ties strongly influence residents to stay. The study reveals a lack of clear evidence for climate-driven migration at the individual/household level, but it underscores well-documented community-level relocations. Two major challenges in studying Arctic climate migration are identified: the complexity of migration and the uniqueness of Arctic climate change. Recommendations include considering migration typology, disentangling climate drivers from contextual factors, and addressing data limitations through systematic collection, integration, and creative use of traditional and nontraditional data. The paper underscores the importance of establishing partnerships with local communities to achieve a holistic understanding of factors driving migration or immobility, ensuring research outcomes are connected to addressing community challenges. This review lays the groundwork for empirical research on Arctic migration and community adaptation, aiming to comprehend the challenges faced by these communities and explore potential solutions.
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unfold_moreOn the Move in the Arctic — Sean Kelly
Sean Kelly 1
1 Alaska Sea Grant, University of Alaska FairbanksFormat: Oral in-person
Abstract:
Hooper Bay is one of many rural, isolated coastal communities in Southwestern Alaska. Following Typhoon Merbok in September of 2022, there was a relatively significant exodus from the community. However, the threat of coastal inundation, while significant, is only one of the factors driving migration away from the coasts. Contributing factors to decisions about whether to leave home are both nuanced and complex. Coastal communities in Alaska have deep connections to place. These include family, a sense of community, and the ability to practice a subsistence way of life. Though considerations of migration are decidedly fraught, the challenges of living in rural, isolated communities are compounded by climate change impacts such as flooding, erosion, and permafrost degradation. These effects are disproportionately disruptive to communities in Alaska and other Arctic regions. Despite increased reference climate-induced human mobility, there is a lack of knowledge on how socioeconomic, cultural, political, and environmental processes impact these population shifts. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding of the role that peri-urban areas might play as receiving communities to climate migrants. A Sea Grant-led Research Coordination Network, People on the Move in a Changing Climate (PEMOCC), is addressing this deficit through transdisciplinary collaborations among researchers, practitioners, resource managers, and coastal stakeholders, fostering a greater understanding of how climate change drives human populations both towards and away from coastal regions. This presentation will present some of PEMOCC’s findings and discuss its motivation moving forward, considering both migrating and receiving communities, ongoing knowledge gaps, and environmental justice in the Arctic.
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unfold_moreShould I stay or should I go: Community relocation, adapting in place, and migration in the North — Julie Brigham-Grette
Julie Brigham-Grette 1; Chris Maio 2; Matt Balazs 2; Bessie Weston 3; Kenneth David 4; Tracy Lewis 4; Caitlyn Butler 1; Emily Kumpel 1; David Fuente 5; James Temte 6
1 University of Massachusetts-Amherst; 2 University of Alaska Fairbanks; 3 City of Mekoryuk; 4 Kongiganak; 5 University of South Carolina; 6 Alaska Pacific UniversityFormat: Oral in-person
Abstract:
Coastal delta communities are among the most vulnerable to climate change, causing most to wonder what their lands and waterways will look like in decades to come. Villages of the Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta are underserved with respect to basic government services so we are co-producing knowledge to highlight areas threatened by sea level rise, coastal erosion, flooding, and permafrost degradation. Communities and traditional ways of life are threatened by sea level rise, salinization, and storm surge because of the low elevation of the delta. The decrease in duration and extent of coastal sea ice has contributed to greater storm impacts increasing the vulnerability of the YK Delta to coastal hazards. These changes are forcing communities to face new realities in their day-to-day lives. Rural villages in the YK region experience challenges in the quality, accessibility, and reliability of drinking water/sanitation services. As communities like Kongiganak and Mekoryuk navigate the changing Arctic together, it is essential to chart a course that holistically considers the physical/human dimensions of these new realities.
In 2023 and 2024, the coastal and erosion group conducted real-time kinematic GNSS surveys to map coastal/river bluffs around the village, harbor, cemetery, and village dump regions. High resolution topographic orthomosaic and DEMS were created over bluffs, beaches, rip rap, sandbags, and any other structures of concern for each community. Collaborations with the schools in both villages allowed us access to middle/high school students where we engaged on the scientific use of drones and remote sensing to monitor our environments.
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unfold_moreHazard implication of forced closure of communties and affective relations to displacement: Uummannaq (GL) and Grindavík (IS) in Focus — Anna Karlsdottir
Anna Karlsdottir 1
1 University of IcelandFormat: Oral in-person
Abstract:
Climate change is negatively affecting stability of mountain cliffs in N-West Greenland triggering major landslides into the ocean causing devastating tsunamis. Uummannaq in Greenland has been living with the aftermath of such nature catastrophy since 2017. While seismologic activities breaking out in volcanic eruptions are affecting coastal communities in SW Iceland where the fishery community of Grindavík is at centre. These hazards and catastrophic incidences have in common that their immediate emergency response has been to force evacuation of the population and hence force closure of the communities. While the triggers differ, there are several commonalities that need to be addressed linked to how the population displaced experiences the migration. Not only does it indicate more complex questions of belonging and challenges of adaptation than earlier anticipated but it also addresses planning issues of proportion not known prior to the incidences and social adaption preparedness in sore need of development.
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unfold_moreClimate Initiatives Program at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium: Climate Equity for Alaska’s Arctic Environmentally Threatened Native Villages — Jackie Qatalina Schaeffer
Jackie Qatalina Schaeffer 1
1 Alaska Native Tribal Health ConsortiumFormat: Oral in-person
Abstract:
The Climate Initiatives Program at that Alaska Tribal Health Consortium is responding to the barriers and challenges of climate change for rural communities. 144 Alaska communities face infrastructure damage from erosion, flooding, and permafrost degradation. The Climate Initiatives Program is dedicated to working with community partners to find healthy ways to adapt to our changing environment. The Climate Initiatives Program staff help assess unique community environments and assist in developing solutions for adaptation, mitigation, and relocation.
The Climate Initiatives Program is comprised of two centers, the Center for Environmentally Threatened Communities (CETC) and the Center for Climate and Health (CCH). CETC assists with community risk assessments, planning, community development, identifying funding and grant writing assistance to acquire funding, project management and capacity building. CCH helps increase understanding and raise awareness about the connections between climate change and community health. Research and community involvement help identify adaptive strategies that support health and wellness for rural communities. CCH has research and learning partnerships with Alaska Pacific University and the statewide interagency One Health Group. In addition, CCH leads the Local Environmental Observer (LEO) network, which facilitates the sharing of local observations of unusual animal, environmental, or weather events and publishes the weekly Northern Climate Observer newsletter that summarizes climate-related event news from the circumpolar north.
Poster Presentations (during Poster Exhibit and Session on Wednesday 26 March):
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unfold_moreAdaptive pathways to natural hazards: embracing socio-ecological feedbacks and stressors together with eight partner communities — Tobias Schwoerer
Tobias Schwoerer 1,2; John (Marty) Anderies 2; George Anderson 3; Matthew Balazs 1; Shauna BurnSilver 3; Tatiana Degai 5; Casey Ferguson 1; Christopher Maio 1; Andrey Petrov 6; Victoria Sharakhmatova 6; Abigail York 3
1 University of Alaska Fairbanks; 2 International Arctic Research Center; 3 Arizona State University; 4 Chignik Intertribal Coalition; 5 University of Victoria; 6 University of Northern IowaFormat: Poster in-person
Poster number: 346
Abstract:
Climate warming, sea level rise, and extreme weather events are creating intensifying and more frequent hazards for human populations inhabiting the coast. In Alaska’s remote coastal communities, flooding and erosion are rapidly increasing due to the combined effect of sea level rise, more frequent storm surges, and increasingly powerful wave action from lack of sea ice. We present results from community-centered research on the socio-economic and psychological livelihood impacts and relocation preferences as reported by residents. Findings underline a community-level preoccupation with coastal climate threats that manifests primarily in health and livelihood impacts. In addition, the ever-increasing complexity of a strategic response to these threats creates further internal and external stressors and socio-ecological feedback on communities. We frame these findings within our newly NSF-funded ACTION project: Alaska Coastal Cooperative for Co-producing Transformative Ideas and Opportunities in the North, a community science consortium model building a community-first approach to coastal resilience. ACTION aims to scale up co-produced community-driven research and strengthen community-driven action through a network of eight partner communities.