ArcticInfo - Information systems in the Arctic Ocean

Background: Large investments are currently made to improve mapping, monitoring, observing and surveying capabilities in the Arctic. The new technological infrastructures widen the range of available information about climate, weather and operational conditions. This serves as the basis for better resource and environmental management as well as for the growth of informed economic activities, thereby stretching the boundaries of the accessible Arctic.

Scope and aim of the project: This project aims to analyze the development of the increasingly complex systems that provide information about the Arctic and their effects on maritime industrial activities, notably fisheries, shipping and petroleum activities. It will make an inventory of mapping and observing initiatives, particularly relating to weather, sea ice and operational conditions. How are these systems set up and coordinated; what types of information are offered and by whom; how is this information made available and accessible to a wide range of users; and how is the information used, by whom and for what purposes? The overall aim of the project is to analyze what effects these systems have on new and existing activities and how they alter the Arctic Ocean as a zone of risk.

The project consists of four main components: 1) the role of Arctic environmental information in the past; 2) an inventory of current developments of Arctic information systems; 3) the effects on decision-making among the users of information; 4) an analysis of how information systems reproduce risk.

The project is financed by the Fram Centre and is a cooperation between the University of Tromsø, Wageningen University (the Netherlands), the Norwegian Polar Institute, the Norwegian Meteorological Institute and Nordnorsk vitensenter.

Participants from MARA are Maaike Knol and Peter Arbo.