We are working with Alaska Native communities in Alaska’s Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta to develop solutions for coastal protection from flooding and erosion that threatens life and property in the region. Solutions will consider natural and traditional infrastructure through the lens of traditional knowledge.
Why We Care
While much of the continental U.S. is considering natural infrastructure for coastal protection, supported by a growing wealth of scientific information, a considerable gap still exists in the use of natural infrastructure for protecting communities and critical infrastructure in dynamic U.S. Arctic coastal regions. The coastal zone in Alaska is unique due to the lack of materials for coastal protection, the remoteness of many coastal communities, and its extreme environmental conditions. Further, the low-lying relief, thawing permafrost, combined with increasing waves and wind fetch due to sea ice loss, makes maintaining coastal protection infrastructure particularly challenging.
What We Are Doing
We are advancing the ability of coastal communities and decision-makers to consider natural infrastructure through the lens of traditional knowledge as a valid coastal protection alternative within the context of ongoing environmental change in Alaska Native communities. Our project focuses on two Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta communities, but is widely applicable throughout western Alaska.
A Management Transition Advisory Group (MTAG) will support the co-production of community-inspired natural infrastructure for coastal protection. Beginning with community participatory workshops in Hooper Bay and Chevak, Alaska, that draw on traditional knowledge and local solutions, this project builds on the innovative natural infrastructure pilot studies and community projects already developed in the region by our team and partners. This work also builds the foundational knowledge necessary to develop natural infrastructure for coastal protection that is grounded in Alaska Native culture and knowledge, and accounts for the unique circumstances of Arctic regions and challenging environmental conditions.
We will monitor the effectiveness of various natural infrastructure selected by the MTAG and help each community build their capacity to continue monitoring as desired. Scenario-based numerical modeling will be used to evaluate coastal hazard risks to communities, ecosystems, and infrastructure, and we will explore strategies, including Arctic natural infrastructure, that account for changes in sea ice, permafrost degradation, and extreme events. The team is also investigating the changes in community environmental risk perceptions due to the implementation of natural infrastructure solutions. Coastal hazards for additional western Alaska communities, and opportunities for natural infrastructure, will be evaluated based on a regional state-of-the-art coastal modeling system.
Benefits of Our Work
This work will enable informed planning and management actions that reduce the impacts of coastal hazards by considering natural infrastructure–based and other strategies that are produced with the communities and can be considered by additional western Alaskan communities moving forward. Arctic natural infrastructure approaches for Arctic coastal protection will be disseminated to hundreds of practicing Alaska engineers per year via the UAA Civil Engineering programs, and local communities will be provided with training in environmental data collection.
This project is led by Celso Ferreira at George Mason University, in collaboration with Davin Holen at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Tom Ravens and E. Lance Howe at the University of Alaska Anchorage, and Nora Nieminski at the Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, and is funded by the NCCOS Effects of Sea Level Rise (ESLR) Program.