Infrastructure

(Nenets reindeer herder navigating the Bovanenkovo gas field, Russia (credit: Brian and Cherry Alexander))

Chairs

Donald A. Walker
University of Alaska Fairbanks
USA
Contact

Jana Peirce (Coordination)
University of Alaska Fairbanks
USA
Contact

Peter Schweitzer
University of Vienna
Austria
Contact

Scope

The Rapid Arctic Transitions due to Infrastructure and Climate (RATIC) initiative assumed the role of the T-MOSAiC Infrastructure Action Group during the 2019–2021 MOSAiC Arctic Drift Expedition. The action group will collaborate with T-MOSAiC to identify and promote activities and synergies that lead toward sustainable Arctic infrastructure, including those that:

Monitor the consequences to natural terrestrial systems of unusual climate sea-ice, atmosphere, and ocean changes during the MOSAiC ice-drift expedition.
Observe and monitor consequences to the built environment, including, roads, runways, railways, pipelines, and indigenous, village, and urban infrastructure.
Examine the consequences of climate and infrastructure changes to Arctic social systems.
Begin developing an Arctic infrastructure observing network, with a focus on coastal and near-coastal social-ecological systems in ice-rich-permafrost environments.

RATIC was born with the goal of promoting sustainable Arctic infrastructure as a key research theme requiring a collaborative multidisciplinary approach involving scientists, local communities, governments and industry.