Welcome to the Arctic PIRE website! We will be using this site to provide updates and information about the progress of our project: Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic.This project will engage an international network of scientists to develop an Arctic Urban Sustainability Index. The Arctic region has also experience urban growth and has been changing at an amazing rate over the past years.Unfortunately, urban growth in the Arctic and globally has had detrimental effects (pollution, encroachment and contribution to climate change) on the landscapes that support them. These concerns have spurred an interest in measuring the state of urban centers, their promotion of sustainability, and the efficacy of such projects. The Arctic is also at the forefront of the battle to mitigate the effects of climate change, as average temperatures rose at almost twice the global rate over the past 100 years.[1] We believe it is imperative to properly assess the challenges these cities will face and track the progress of their sustainability policy. The Arctic PIRE Grant will enable us to study the accelerated pace of change in the Arctic, both environmentally as well as socio-economically, and will yield valuable lessons to serve other cities around the globe as they will inevitably face and need to adapt to the effects of climate-change.
The project officially launches in April 2016 and has been made possible through a generous grant from the National Science Foundation.
[1] “Climate Change 2007: Synthesis Report.” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 2007. https://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/ar4/syr/en/mains1.html