Tag: urban sustainability

Student Perspectives on Fieldwork in Siberia

September 8, 2017 Uncategorized No Comments
During the Summer of 2017, the PIRE team made a research trip to the Russian cities of Salekhard and Vorkuta. Here we present some of the student descriptions of the trip.  July 9: Anna Zhu Of the 11 glaciers that previously existed in the region, only 2.5 remain. Today, we…

Yakutsk and Mirnyi Fieldwork Report

August 5, 2017 Uncategorized No Comments
July 18-August 1, 2017 Marlene Laruelle (GWU) and Sophie Hohmann (INALCO, Paris) This PIRE fieldwork was devoted to the study of social urban sustainability in two cities of Sakha Republic (Yakutia): the capital city Yakutsk and the “diamond capital” Mirnyi. Our research focused on demographic, social and cultural changes in…

The Link Between Urban Density and Sustainability

July 12, 2017 Uncategorized No Comments
The city center in Luleå, Sweden, is a tree-lined pedestrian- and bicycle-only thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants. The city buildings are, with few exceptions, only a few stories tall. At the periphery stand a few apartment buildings, each four to five stories tall, and most in the same iconic…

The Importance of Public Transportation for Sustainability in Arctic Cities

June 26, 2017 Uncategorized 1 Comment
  Public transportation is an important contributing factor to urban sustainability. Effective transportation networks that incorporate public transit help lower a city’s per capita carbon footprint, and make cities more livable by easing commute and transportation needs and increasing accessibility. But the mere presence of public transportation—the number of buses,…

Meeting with Community Stakeholders in Anchorage, Alaska

May 25, 2017 Uncategorized No Comments
Last week, the Arctic PIRE team gathered in Anchorage, Alaska, to share ongoing research, to continue developing the Arctic Urban Sustainability Index (AUSI), and to meet with community stakeholders to gain a better understanding of what is important to consider when evaluating urban sustainability in the Arctic, and also to…

Debating the Future Development of Arctic Resources

February 6, 2017 Uncategorized No Comments
Robert Orttung, Tromsø, Norway Should Norway continue to develop its Arctic oil and natural gas resources or would Arctic communities be better off focusing on renewable energy? This was the hot topic of debate at the opening session of the 2017 Arctic Frontiers conference in Tromsø, Norway in January. Columbia…

Tundra to Table: Vertical Farming in the Arctic

December 1, 2016 Uncategorized 1 Comment
The vast Arctic territory is rich in resources including minerals, hydrocarbons, and wildlife. However, high latitudinal regions receive little sunlight for several months each year, which severely limits the region’s ability to grow fresh produce. Many Arctic urban centers rely on long, complex supply chains to receive shipments of fresh…

Inaugural Arctic PIRE Meeting is a Resounding Success

October 25, 2016 Uncategorized No Comments
This past weekend, we were delighted to host the inaugural annual meeting of the Arctic PIRE: Promoting Urban Sustainability in the Arctic project. Roughly 30 members of our international research network were in attendance, discussing issues including the framework for our Arctic Urban Sustainability Index, the selection appropriate sustainability indicators, and…

Shaky Foundations: Urban Areas built on Disappearing Permafrost

October 19, 2016 Uncategorized No Comments
Last week, three of our distinguished researchers, Dmitry Streletskiy of The George Washington University, Valery Grebenets of Moscow State University, and Oleg Anisomov of Russia’s State Hydrological Institute, were featured in a Guardian article on the effects of thawing permafrost on Arctic cities. The Russian city of Norilsk, discussed a few weeks ago in…