scholarly journals Ensuring the Sustainability of Arctic Industrial Facilities under Conditions of Global Climate Change

Resources ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 128
Author(s):  
George Buslaev ◽  
Pavel Tsvetkov ◽  
Alexander Lavrik ◽  
Andrey Kunshin ◽  
Elizaveta Loseva ◽  
...  

Global climate change poses a challenge to the mineral development industry in the Arctic regions. Civil and industrial buildings designed and constructed without consideration of warming factors are beginning to collapse due to changes in the permafrost structure. St. Petersburg Mining University is developing technical and technological solutions for the construction of remote Arctic facilities and a methodology for their design based on physical and mathematical predictive modeling. The article presents the results of modeling the thermal regimes of permafrost soils in conditions of thermal influence of piles and proposes measures that allow a timely response to the loss of bearing capacity of piles. Designing pile foundations following the methodology proposed in the article to reduce the risks from global climate change will ensure the stability of remote Arctic facilities located in the zone of permafrost spreading.

1999 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-84
Author(s):  
Jinro Ukila ◽  
Moloyoshi Ikeda

The Frontier Research System for Global Change—the International Arctic Research Center (Frontier-IARC) is a research program funded by the Frontier Research System for Global Change. The program is jointly run under a cooperative agreement between the Frontier Research System for Global Change and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The aim of the program is to understand the role of the Arctic region in global climate change. The program concentrates its research effort initially on the areas of air-sea-ice interactions, bio-geochemical processes and the ecosystem. To understand the arctic climate system in the context of global climate change, we focus on mechanisms controlling arctic-subarctic interactions, and identify three key components: the freshwater balance, the energy balance, and the large-scale atmospheric processes. Knowledge of details of these components and their interactions will be gained through long-term monitoring, process studies, and modeling; our focus will be on the latter two categories.


European View ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 156-162
Author(s):  
Romain Chuffart ◽  
Andreas Raspotnik

Dealing with climate change and developing the Arctic sustainably are often seen as both binary and contradictory sets of challenges. The EU is in a unique position in Arctic affairs: unlike non-Arctic states, it is part of and linked to the region. However, the EU is at risk of missing the opportunity to be a leader in setting standards for a coherent and sustainable approach for the region. The Arctic is often used as a symbol for global climate change and, conversely, climate change is also used as a reason for more Arctic engagement. Yet, the roots of global heating—greenhouse gas emissions—mostly originate from outside the region. This article asks whether the path towards more EU–Arctic involvement should start closer to home.


Author(s):  
Jialin Chi ◽  
Chonghao Jia ◽  
Wenjun Zhang ◽  
Christine V Putnis ◽  
Lijun Wang

The stability of soil organic matter (SOM) plays a key role in controlling global climate change as soil stores a large amount of organic carbon, compared with other ecological systems....


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Livio Ruggiero ◽  
Alessandra Sciarra ◽  
Adriano Mazzini ◽  
Claudio Mazzoli ◽  
Valentina Romano ◽  
...  

<p>Current global climate changes represent a threat for the stability of the polar regions and may result in cascading broad impacts. Studies conducted on permafrost in the Arctic regions indicate that these areas may store almost twice the carbon currently present in the atmosphere. Therefore, permafrost thawing may potentially cause a significant increase of greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere, exponentially rising the global warming effect. Although several studies have been carried out in the Arctic regions, there is a paucity of data available from the Southern Hemisphere. The Seneca project aims to fill this gap and to provide a first degree of evaluations of gas concentrations and emissions from permafrost and/or thawed shallow strata of the Dry Valleys in Antarctica. The Taylor and Wright Dry Valleys represent one of the few Antarctic areas that are not covered by ice and therefore represent an ideal target for permafrost investigations.</p><p>Here we present the preliminary results of a multidisciplinary field expedition conducted during the Antarctic summer in the Dry Valleys, aimed to collect and analyse soil gas and water samples, to measure CO<sub>2</sub> and CH<sub>4</sub> flux exhalation, to investigate the petrological soil properties, and to acquire geoelectrical profiles. The obtained data are used to 1) derive a first total emission estimate for methane and carbon dioxide in this part of the Southern Polar Hemisphere, 2) locate the potential presence of geological discontinuities that can act as preferential gas pathways for fluids release, and 3) investigate the mechanisms of gas migration through the shallow sediments. These results represent a benchmark for measurements in these climate sensitive regions where little or no data are today available.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 133-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lill Rastad Bjørst

Abstract The global climate change debate has the Arctic as a core region of concern and ice has become a central aspect of discourses. This article discusses ice representations from six different contexts linked to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen. The author argues that even though the discussions often seem to be centred on ice alone, the latter enters into narratives and metaphors that have wider implications for how the Arctic and its Indigenous peoples are represented. Ice becomes a non-human actor, framing the discussions, acting in specific ways, and linking hybrid networks. Indeed it is used in diverse platforms by scientists, politicians, governments, and NGOs, as well as by Inuit hunters and fishers.


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