North East experts chosen to work with Arctic communities on climate change technology

Northumbria University researchers are part of a unique team working on a new £1m project to better equip Indigenous communities in the Arctic against the disproportionate impacts of climate change.

The study, involving local community researchers and action groups, government agencies and decision-makers, Inuit knowledge-holders, and leading UK and Canadian academics, will investigate changing ground conditions and assess their wider implications in coastal regions of Canada’s Inuit homeland that are under threat from climate change.

The researchers will work with affected local communities to co-develop appropriate new tools and solutions to the landscape changes that threaten critical infrastructure, navigation routes, food and water security, and impact physical and mental health and wellbeing. Some areas are under such threat that they may be lost in as little as 20 years.

The project, which is named Nuna, taken from the word for ‘land’, ‘country’ and ‘soil’ in the Inuvialuktun language, brings together experts from Northumbria’s Departments of Mechanical and Construction Engineering, Geography and Environmental Sciences and Maths, Physics and Electrical Engineering.

They will join Arctic community initiatives and researchers from Natural Resources Canada, the National Research Council of Canada, Environment Canada, Parks Canada, and the Government of Northwest Territoriesto drive unique solutions-based research.

Professor Mike Lim, who will lead the project alongside Tuktoyaktuk community senior administrative officer Shawn Stuckey, explained, “Coastal communities have demonstrated exceptional resilience to the challenges of Arctic living but are having to make increasingly difficult decisions over how to respond to the complex nature of more intense environmental changes.

“Through Nuna we’ll combine a wealth of existing data and Indigenous knowledge with exciting technological developments, empowering communities to better identify and avoid emerging hazards related to the rapidly changing landscape.”

The study is just one example of Northumbria University’s world-leading environmental research into extreme, cold and palaeo environments.

The University is ranked second in the UK for its research power in Geography and Environmental Studies and is top 25 in Engineering in the 2021 Research Excellence Framework, with 90 per cent of its research in these disciplines rated as being either world-leading or internationally excellent.