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This project will engage an international network of scientists to develop an Arctic Urban Sustainability Index. The Arctic Urban Sustainability Index will be used to measure the effects of anthropogenic expansion, inform policy meant to mitigate these effects, and assess progress towards sustainable solutions in Arctic cities that are growing due to resource development projects. The Index will address a complex set of systems unique to the Arctic with numerous important variables, including thawing permafrost, a boom-bust economic cycle, and an influx of migrant workers with the resulting increase in social tensions.  By working with international partners, our researchers will gain crucial access to cities of the Arctic outside of the United States, building relationships with local policy-makers and populations, and acquiring data most easily obtained by local researchers.

This website will be used as a portal to communicate about progress, ideas, and updates from our contributors and partners. We will regularly publish blog posts keeping users up to date on the latest developments in our widespread and diverse Arctic community.

For more information and inquiries please contact our Research Assistants.

Emily Zhang: ezhang@gwmail.gwu.edu

Phoebe Bride: pwbride2020@gwu.edu

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Welcome to the website of Arctic PIRE: Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic! We are an NSF sponsored international research network based out of The George Washington University, in Washington DC. We hope to promote meaningful dialogue about Arctic urban sustainability issues among policymakers and the public, and also provide support and materials to educators wishing to promote education on these Arctic issues.

The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed on this website are those of the author(s), and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF. 

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Our Updates

  • Check out our newly launched data website put together by our research assistants, Shreeya Sharda and Daniel Ensor. It makes our project’s indicators’ database publicly available and accessible to those interested in Arctic urban data.
  • A couple of PIRE researchers are conducting a study on perceptions of wildfire management in the Arctic versus the continental U.S. and they need your help! If you have been or are a current resident of either Fairbanks, Alaska or Los Angeles, California, please take a few moments to take their survey and share it with your network.
  • Follow along this project’s developments: the Sustainable Urban Development in the European Arctic (SUDEA): Towards Enhanced Transnational Cooperation in Remote Regions housed at the German Development Institute. The research team is combining theoretical analyses with empirical studies to assess pathways towards sustainable urban development policies.

The Arctic in the News

  • Nuclear power plant construction in north Finland faces delay, increased costs and geopolitical uncertainties (April 30, 2021); Arctic Today
  • 2020 Census Shows Alaska Population Growth Slower than National Average (April 27, 2021); High North News
  • Navigating beneath the Arctic ice (April 23, 2021); MIT News

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 Our Partners

        

     

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