Sustainable Modes of Arctic Resource-driven Transformations - SMART
The Arctic region is being affected by global climate change at twice the rate of most other regions in the world. In addition, regional warming in the Arctic is significantly influenced by short-lived climate-forcing pollutants (SLCPs), especially black carbon and ozone. Key sources of SLCPs in the inner Arctic region include maritime transportation, oil and gas exploration, and domestic heating.
The rapid change in the climate and a decrease in sea-ice cover give rise to a complex set of ecological, social, and economic challenges. This complexity lies not only in the Arctic’s atmospheric, oceanic, terrestrial physical and ecological systems, but also in the interactions with the global system, including local and global human actions to adapt to, mitigate, or disregard those changes.
A changing Arctic raises a number of issues: how can we deepen our understanding in order to better cope with changes in these complex systems and develop transformative pathways towards a sustainable future? How can we develop an approach that simultaneously builds on deep disciplinary expertise in the relevant scientific fields, bridges multiple disciplines in an integrative way, and frames and conducts research in collaboration with stakeholders? How can we recognise complexity and use human knowledge in the transformation towards sustainability to ensure informed and equitable participation of all stakeholders in the governance process?
The IASS project “Sustainable Modes of Arctic Resource-driven Transformations (SMART)” addressed these questions. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the social and natural sciences (e.g. geography, law, economics, public policy, physics and chemistry) strove to contribute meaningfully to scientific understanding, participatory governance and sustainable development in the Arctic.
Through multiple events, SMART brought together many Arctic stakeholders such as through the workshop series „Arctic Horizon 2030“, which took place in Potsdam in 2013 and in Moscow in 2014.
The following enlists the project results of SMART:
- IASS Working Paper: Engaging Stakeholders in Interdependent Arctic and Global Change
- Poster IASS research project: Sustainable Modes of Arctic Resource-driven Transformations
- Poster "Feedback Loops and Interdependencies between Arctic and non-Arctic Regions"
- Keil, Kathrin, 2015. “Economic Potential”, in: Jokela, Juha (ed.): Arctic security matters, Report No 24 – Juni 2015, EU Institute for Security Studies, Paris, pp. 21-31. Available at: http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/Report_24_Arctic_matters.pdf.
- Keil, Kathrin, 2015. Arctic governance, Arctic in Rapid Transition, Priority Sheet, Future Directions of Arctic Sciences, Potsdam: Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, IASS. DOI: http://doi.org/10.2312/iass.2017.009
- Kirstin Werner, Kathrin Keil, Michael Fritz, Nathalie Morata, Alexey Pavlov, Ilka Peeken, Anna Nikolopoulos, Helen Findlay, Monika Kędra, Sanna Majaneva, Angelika Renner, Stefan Hendricks, Mathilde Jacquot, Marcel Nicolaus, Matt O’Regan, Makoto Sampei, Carolyn Wegner, 2016: “Arctic in Rapid Transition: Priorities for the Future of Marine and Coastal Research in the Arctic”, Polar Science, Vol. 10, Issue 3, pp. 364–373.
- Jennifer V. Lukovich, Mona Behl, Wilfrid Greaves, Kathrin Keil, 2016: “Arctic in the Anthropocene: sustainability in a new polar age”, Polar Record, Vol. 52, Issue 6, pp. 621-623.
- Andrey N. Petrov, Shauna BurnSilver, F. Stuart Chapin III, Gail Fondahl, Jessica Graybill, Kathrin Keil, Annika E. Nilsson, Rudolf Riedlsperger & Peter Schweitzer, 2016: “Arctic sustainability research: toward a new agenda”, Polar Geography, Vol. 39, Issue 3, pp. 165-178.