We are excited to announce the release of a comprehensive education and outreach resource aimed at raising awareness about the importance of coastal and offshore permafrost and to identify urgent geoscience research needs. The Coastal and Offshore Permafrost Rapid Response Assessment (RRA) focuses primarily on areas of western North America where there is extensive offshore permafrost and retreating coastal areas.
However, the findings extend to other parts of the Arctic as well. Along with the science, the RRA considers the perspectives of Arctic peoples on the coastal permafrost issues that they struggle with on a daily basis and the concerns that they have for the future. Discussions with the residents of communities in the western Canadian Arctic were influential in focusing the scope of the RRA.
The RRA is organized as a collection of three ESRI StoryMaps. The two main story maps summarize the science, issues of concern identified by Arctic peoples, and policy considerations. We have also created a community space as a crowdsource storymap where people can share their observations and experiences about coastal permafrost issues.
For more information, please contact Tiina Kurvits, Project Manager and Scott Dallimore,
Science Content. Financial support provided by the Geological Survey of Canada and
Aurora Research Institute, the Korea Polar Research Institute, PerCS-Net, and GRID-Arendal.
