Resilient Alaska Native Communities: Integrating Traditional Ecological Knowledge with Risk Assessment Through Local Monitoring

北极的自然灾害正在严重影响阿拉斯加原住民社区的健康和福祉。 2009年，美国政府问责局发现，31个社区受到洪水和侵蚀的紧迫威胁（GAO 2009）。侵蚀和反复出现的极端天气事件破坏了基础设施，包括诊所以及水和污水处理设施。盐水入侵和永久冻土融化影响饮用水的获取。 在最极端的情况下，加速的侵蚀速度危及生命，并导致阿拉斯加原住民社区选择搬迁整个社区。 搬迁涉及建设社区基础设施，确保维持或改善社区的健康和福祉。该奖项支持EAGER研究项目，该项目有可能改变理解并支持阿拉斯加原住民社区的适应能力，这些社区正在经历环境变化对其健康和福祉的影响。 通过这个项目，调查员PI Bronen将通过构建一种方法来确定是否以及何时需要进行社区搬迁，以保护社区居民的生命和生计，从而解决受自然灾害影响的阿拉斯加土著社区面临的最紧迫挑战之一。 研究人员将与四个阿拉斯加原住民社区以及政府和非政府组织合作，设计和实施一个方法框架，该框架可以评估何时不再可能提供保护，何时需要重新安置。 预计这些社区将代表一系列适应应对措施，包括“就地保护”、一些基础设施的迁移和搬迁。 这一项目的更广泛影响是为设计和实施一个保护社区居民健康和福祉的搬迁体制框架提供一个模式，并可供因环境变化而面临流离失所的其他社区采用。然而，它们对任何旨在提高阿拉斯加土著社区适应能力的进程都至关重要。 通过向社区学习和与社区共同创造知识，研究小组寻求加强阿拉斯加土著社区评估需求和制定适应战略的能力，以保护他们的健康和福祉。 此外，该项目还将促进社区成员与可能提供关键技术或财政援助的政府组织和大学研究人员之间的协调。

Natural hazards in the Arctic are dramatically impacting the health and well-being of Alaska Native communities. In 2009, the US Government Accountability Office found that 31 communities were imminently threatened by flooding and erosion (GAO 2009). Erosion and repeated extreme weather events damage infrastructure, including health clinics and water and sewage treatment facilities. Saline intrusion and thawing permafrost impact access to potable water. In the most extreme cases, accelerating rates of erosion are life-threatening and are causing Alaska Native communities to choose to relocate their entire community. Relocation involves the construction of community infrastructure and ensuring that community health and well-being are maintained or improved. This award supports an EAGER research project that has the potential to transform understandings and support the adaptive capacity of Alaska Native communities experiencing the impacts of environmental change on their health and well-being. Through this project the investigator, PI Bronen, will address one of the most urgent challenges facing Alaska Native communities impacted by natural hazards by constructing a methodology to determine whether and when community relocation needs to occur to protect the lives and livelihoods of community residents. The researcher will work with four Alaska Native communities and governmental and non-governmental organizations to design and implement a methodological framework that can assess when protection in place is no longer possible and relocation is required. It is expected that the communities will represent a continuum of adaptation responses including "protection in place," migration of some infrastructure, and relocation. The broader impact of this project is to provide a model for the design and implementation of a relocation institutional framework that protects the health and well-being of community residents and can be applied by other communities facing displacement because of environmental change.Community engagement and empowerment are non-trivial, multi-dimensional challenges; however they are critical to any process aiming to improve the adaptive capacity of Alaska Native communities. By learning from and co-producing knowledge with communities, the research team seeks to enhance Alaska Native communities' capacity to assess needs and develop adaptation strategies than can protect their health and well-being. In addition, the project will facilitate coordination between community members and governmental organizations and university researchers that might be able to provide critical technical or financial assistance.