SPATIAL APPROACHES TO LEARNING ABOUT CLIMATE

CHANGE

Lab #1. Climate and Its Connections to Traditional Ecological Knowledge

Lab #2. Change in the Polar Icecaps

Introduction to GIS & Climate Change

Making decisions based on geography is basic to human thinking. By understanding geography and people's relationship to location, we can make informed decisions about the way we live on our planet.

A geographic information system (GIS) is a technological tool for comprehending geography and making intelligent decisions.

Types of Climate Data Two general types of data are useful in studying climate

change: past observations and future predictions. For centuries, mankind has been keeping careful records

of rainfall, temperature, lake level, stream flow, etc. for thousands of locations across the globe.

Beyond these historical records, additional records of climate change stretch back even further when you consider fields such as dendrochronology (measuring the size of tree rings), which reveals climate data stretching back for thousands of years, and palynology (changes in the type and distribution of fossil pollen), which gives us clues about climate going back millions of years.

Analysis of Climate Data Anyone who watches the weather forecasts knows the

prediction of short term, highly-localized conditions such as the chance of rain in Boulder on Friday afternoon is quite different from predicting long-term, more general phenomena such as global climate change.

Scientists have been using sophisticated computer models such as general circulation, atmosphere-ocean interaction, and radiative-convective process models to visualize the earth’s climate.

The output of a particular model can be useful, but combining data from multiple sources, both past and future, gives us the best and most comprehensive vision of our planet.

Climate data and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

ICE SCIENCE IS A MATTER OF SURVIVAL FOR THE INUPIAT ALASKANS

(more than 7,000 Inupiat live in the lands along the North Slope)

For thousands of years, these hunters have made seasonal trips to the ice edge seeking fish and game. The Inupiats have a vast amount of traditional ecological knowledge passed on from generation to generation. This includes a wealth of terminology for ice and snow and the various conditions associated with them. Hunting parties hike across pressure ridges, sit by seal holes for days, set up temporary igloos to wait for bowhead whales to swim by them, and camp on areas of landfast ice. (The landfast ice is sea ice that forms and is often grounded by pressure ridges and remains attached to the coast for much of the winter.)

TO SURVIVE IN THIS REGION, THE PEOPLE MUST UNDERSTAND THE SIGNS THAT INDICATE CHANGES IN THE ENVIRONMENT.

For example, they need to know that a shift of wind velocity or a change in the sea current's direction may cause a land extension of ice to break off the coast, which has the potential to strand hunting parties or crush houses.

For the last century, western scientists have studied this area’s climate, light, polar ice caps, astronomy, atmosphere, and so on. The study of landfast ice and pack ice is important for understanding ecology, climate change, minerals management, and navigation. Indigenous people have much to offer western researchers in this understanding. Researchers and Inupiats developed a method of integrating traditional knowledge with modern scientific findings. GIS technology has proven to be an excellent tool in cross-cultural communication for discussions that synthesize both forms of ecological knowledge.

Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

and Social Science Understanding how social systems interact with

natural systems (both physical and biological) involves quantitative studies and forms of hypothesis testing similar to the fields of atmospheric science and terrestrial ecology.

When scientists study climate-influenced and human-influenced phenomena such as ice roads, river flows, or fish catches, rigorous understanding of all the system drivers (including the role of humans) becomes critical.

A network consisting of social scientists, citizens and other observers help make available and accessible arctic data already being collected in a common structure. This network could also function to identify data gaps and to collect data as appropriate to fill those gaps.

This network is essential to understanding common patterns and local variations in the flow of arctic social change and in developing models about their causes

The size, composition, well-being and livelihoods of tribal communities. Wide variations can occur between neighboring communities and regions.

Health and economic statistics. These statistics provide key indicators of human and well-being; they can be important for highlighting successes or problems needing to be addressed.

Data on industrial development, infrastructure, and resource extraction. Changes in sea-ice, permafrost and storm frequency are three environmental factors affecting human activity.

Global economic and institutional trends. These data provide important information about the larger contexts that affect the nature and range of choices residents may have for coping with environmental change.

Qualitative data. Data such as historical accounts, interviews or individual life histories are essential for meaning and interpretation. Such data allow triangulation between local knowledge and history, events, and conditions identified through biophysical research. The time-indexed framework of quantitative data provides a way to organize and reference qualitative accounts.

Examples of Types of Information That Can Be Integrated with Quantitative Climate Data

Download and install Explorer if not already on computer. (http://

www.esri.com/software/arcgis/explorer/index.html) Link to streaming video Seminar Series on

Explorer: Parts I and II only (http://

training.esri.com/acb2000/showdetl.cfm?DID=6&Product_ID=937) Assignment: Completion of Seminar Series:

Parts I and II

LAB #1 Part A: Introduction to ArcGIS Explorer (1 hour)

LAB #1 Part B: Introduction to ArcGIS Explorer (2 hours)

Link to streaming video Seminar Series for Explorer: Part III(http://training.esri.com/acb2000/showdetl.cfm?DID=6&Product_ID=937)

Add Locations for twelve separate Tribal Colleges Create a customized map for a specific Tribal community using

display overlays of two sets of data – (1) health and economic statistics, data on industrial development, infrastructure, or resource extraction, or global economic trends (http://www.esri.com/data/free_data/index.html); and (2) climate data (http://www.gisclimatechange.org).

Assignment: Present map to class with class discussion on possible connections of the data.