Local coastlines and communities are the epicenter of climate change impact, yet too often our research overlooks the voices and engagement of local community members. Nowhere is this more evident than in work in indigenous communities where scientists often take the lead on research that is done without engagement of the local community, does not focus on local concerns and impacts, and fails in communicating the results often citing challenges with language and culture. Effective community resilience requires community investment that transfers the science and communication opportunities and resources to our local partners to be the project voice.
The Greenland Rising project, funded through NSF’s Navigating the New Arctic, is a collaboration between the U.S. (Columbia University) and Greenland (Greenland Institute of Natural Resources), focused on the co-production of scientific targets for understanding sea level change along the Greenland coast, and an investment in local education around the science. In order to establish priority coastal mapping targets, Greenland Rising hosted community meetings with municipal and industrial leaders, as well as with hunters, fishers and community residents. Led and organized by our Greenlandic partners these were held in the native language between individuals that grew up in a culture of hunting and understood the goals and needs of the community members. Trust and understanding were a large part of the success of the meetings to gather input on mutually beneficial coastal targets to help identify and quantify changes in existing port access, fisheries habitat and hunting grounds.
We have also invested in an educational initiative that fits the interests and needs of the students, schools and communities in Greenland which we engages the students with the changes that are underway for Greenland’s coast. We will share the project and explore the educational resources with the group.
An introduction to the Greenland Rising Project, a partnership program between Lamont_Doherty, Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, and the local communities and schools in Greenland. The introduction includes a section on why sea level on Greenland’s coastline is rising.
A more in depth look at what is happening on Greenland’s coastline with uplift and sea level rise and the role of tide gauges in answering some of our questions.
Analyzing and reviewing some of the tide data collected and comparing coastal uplift with sea level rise in different locations around Greenland’s coast.
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