RCN-SEES Arctic-FROST builds an international interdisciplinary collaborative network that teams together environmental and social scientists, local educators and community members from all circumpolar countries to enable and mobilize research on sustainable Arctic development, specifically aimed at improving health, human development and well-being of Arctic communities while conserving ecosystem structures, functions and resources. It is first U.S.-based circumpolar initiative of this kind and magnitude after the International Polar Year (2007-08). The purpose of the project is to contribute to conceptual, applied and educational aspects of sustainability science abo
Research Questions:
Arctic-FROST address three overarching questions:
q What does sustainable development in the Arctic mean, locally, regionally, and globally?
q How is sustainable development attainable in a changing Arctic?
q What are the best ways of measuring achievements towards adaptation, thrivability and sustainable development in the Arctic?
Objectives:
(1) accomplish knowledge synthesis about Arctic sustainable development;
(2) develop new theoretical frameworks providing integrated views of sustainability in remote resource regions;
(3) improve spatial understandings of sustainability at multiple geographical scales and in divergent Arctic contexts; and
(4) identify future research directions for Arctic sustainability
and sustainable development, focusing on ways to maximize resource development benefits and minimize economic, social, cultural and environmental costs.