Doctoral Dissertation Research: Mapping Community Exposure to Coastal Climate Hazards in the Arctic: A Case Study in Alaska's North Slope

本研究调查了阿拉斯加沿海气候灾害对社区的影响。并纳入社区对土地、基础设施和其他资产损失的潜在影响的评估。这一分析将通过开发新的灾害评估方法为应对战略和规划提供信息，这些方法可以支持北坡的社区恢复力，并有可能成为推进其他农村和城市社区评估和规划的典范。这项研究将扩大传统的金融风险评估，纳入非物质因素，如社区内不同社会群体的价值观和优先事项，包括从跨国石油公司到个人谋生猎人等各种利益相关者。本研究调查了社区对资产重要性的看法，并将结果与共同制作的北坡海岸社区暴露图的地球物理危害数据模型相结合。这项研究将有助于理解气候变化影响的人类和社会层面，包括社会、经济、政治和文化因素如何塑造脆弱性和条件响应策略。方法和发现可以通过展示在暴露分析中系统地纳入非市场价值的方法和重要性，加强美国全国范围内绘制社区对沿海气候危害暴露图的努力。拟议研究的目标包括使美国地质调查局（USGS）的沿海脆弱性指数（CVI）适应北极环境，并将结果与正式资产数据库和空间社区景观价值模型相结合，同时在与受影响社区合作的过程中共同制作暴露地图。具体来说，与阿拉斯加北坡社区合作，该研究将把风取（即风可以产生近岸波浪的开放水域距离，由海冰范围决定）纳入CVI，并获得社区对结果的反馈。除了社区对CVI地图的投入外，共同制作暴露地图还包括社区利用现有的空间数据集为传统土地利用地点分配价值，绘制和调查受沿海灾害威胁的特定地点，以了解暴露资产威胁社区的原因。

This research investigates community exposure to coastal climate hazards in Alaska?s North Slope and incorporates community assessment of the potential effects on loss of land, infrastructure, and other assets. This analysis will inform response strategies and planning by developing new methods of hazard assessment that can support community resilience in the North Slope and potentially serve as a model for advancing assessment and planning in other rural and urban communities. This research will expand traditional assessments of financial exposure to also include non-material factors such as values and priorities of diverse social groups within a community including a diverse set of stakeholders, ranging from multinational oil companies to individual subsistence hunters. This study surveys community views of asset importance and integrates results with a geophysical hazard data model for a coproduced community exposure map of the North Slope coast. This research will contribute to understanding the human and social dimensions of climate change impacts, including how social, economic, political, and cultural factors shape vulnerabilities and condition response strategies. Methods and findings could enhance nation-wide efforts in the United States to map community exposure to coastal climate hazards by demonstrating methods for, and the importance of systematically incorporating non-market values in exposure analysis.The objectives of the proposed research include adapting the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) coastal vulnerability index (CVI) to the Arctic context, and integrating results with formal asset databases and a spatial community landscape value model while working with affected communities during the process to coproduce exposure maps. Specifically, working with North Slope Alaskan communities the study will incorporate wind fetch (i.e., the open water distance over which wind can generate near shore waves, determined by sea ice extent) into the CVI and get community feedback on the results. In addition to community input on the CVI maps, coproducing the exposure maps includes the community assigning values to traditional land use places using existing spatial datasets and mapping and investigating specific sites threatened by coastal hazards with the aim to learn why exposed assets threaten the community.