pdf Planning for Climate Change in Nunavut Popular

Sara Holzman – Government of Nunavut, Department of Environment, Climate Change Section

Changes in permafrost stability are greatly affecting Nunavut’s communities.  Adapting to these impacts is becoming more apparent at the community level.  Due to the rocky landscape and poor drainage systems in Cape Dorset, maintaining current infrastructure and planning for future development is proving to be challenging. In the summer of 2015, the Climate Change Section of the Government of Nunavut hosted community climate change engagement activities in Cape Dorset to collect and share information around a map that shows suitability of land based on ground movement. 

Getting feedback on the map will ultimately ensure that it is developed at a level that is both user-friendly and practical for all. General discussions throughout the week focused on how infrastructure is affected by changing permafrost and how these changes influence current and future development in the community. These activities included meetings, site visits, school activities, and community-wide events and engaged members of the community, including the Hamlet of Cape Dorset, the housing sector, elders, youth, and the general public.  The week’s activities fostered collaboration between the various groups, and it was encouraging to see information being shared between the research world and practitioners at the municipal and territorial level. Other examples of partnership building including community based monitoring initiatives and participating in local radio evenings.These and other engagement activities are an excellent example of different groups coming together to discuss climate change adaptation in unique and engaging methods.