The state of climate change adaptation in the Arctic

Abstract

The Arctic climate is rapidly changing, with wide ranging impacts on natural and social systems. A variety of adaptation policies, programs and practices have been adopted to this end, yet our understanding of if, how, and where adaptation is occurring is limited. In response, this paper develops a systematic approach to characterize the current state of adaptation in the Arctic. Using reported adaptations in the English language peer reviewed literature as our data source, we document 157 discrete adaptation initiatives between 2003 and 2013. Results indicate large variations in adaptation by region and sector, dominated by reporting from North America, particularly with regards to subsistence harvesting by Inuit communities. Few adaptations were documented in the European and Russian Arctic, or have a focus on the business and economy, or infrastructure sectors. Adaptations are being motivated primarily by the combination of climatic and non-climatic factors, have a strong emphasis on reducing current vulnerability involving incremental changes to existing risk management processes, and are primarily initiated and led at the individual/community level. There is limited evidence of trans-boundary adaptations or initiatives considering potential cross-scale/sector impacts.

A systems network approach for climate change vulnerability assessment

“…Figure 2 illustrates the steps used starting with the systematic literature review and ending with stakeholder engagement to validate and refine our results. Because the current research builds on more than 16 years of work by our research group with local Inuit communities and regional decision makers [5,26,37,38], underpinned by principles of community-based participatory research [39,40], we have the advantage of implicitly integrating substantial local insight into our project. We therefore, aim to re-engage stakeholders at the end, to validate and refine our results.…”

Robust Adaptation Research in High Mountains: Integrating the Scientific, Social, and Ecological Dimensions of Glacio-Hydrological Change

“…Moreover, research focusing on the socio-ecological interdependencies, feedbacks, and tradeoffs inherent in adaptation to climate change are critically lacking, paralleling the broader adaptation literature (ibid.). Although mountain-focused adaptation research remains limited compared to other glaciated regions such as the Arctic [45], there is now a sufficient level of understanding to begin synthesizing key insights and identifying guiding principles for more robust adaptation research in rapidly changing high mountain watersheds.…”

Adaptation strategies to climate change in the Arctic: a global patchwork of reactive community-scale initiatives

“…While considerable attention has been given in the 2014 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC 2014) to identifying the potential adverse and beneficial impacts of environmental change of the wellbeing of people in the Arctic, discussion of adaptation strategies remains limited. Ford et al (2014) have addressed this gap by conducting a meta-analysis of existing peer-reviewed literature to develop an understanding of the state of climate adaptation across the Arctic.…”

“…Moreover, local and community-level adaptions are frequently insufficient to account for outcomes of regional and global drivers. Ford et al (2014) report that only 4% of initiatives were circumpolar in scope while many of environmental impacts associated with opportunities for economic development including mining, oil and gas extraction, and fisheries are multi-national by nature. Finally, the overwhelming focus on community-level adaptations for indigenous people leaves out the more populous group of urban inhabitants of the Arctic who experience some of the same (e.g.…”

“…The status of climate change adaptation in the Arctic described by Ford et al (2014) present a geographically lopsided, topically skewed, and local-scale dominated distribution of adaptation initiatives. However, the fact that these initiatives are developing and that their number has been growing over time is a positive sign.…”