Weaving Inuit Knowledge with Watershed Hydrobiogeochemical Characterization to Inform River Monitoring in Nunatsiavut
Organization: Memorial University
Mission: Supporting a sustainable, long-term research program focusing on monitoring indicators that support local Inuit communities in their efforts to adapt and manage coastal resources in the face of climate change.
Location: St. John’s, Halifax, Kingston, Vancouver, Nain, Hopedale, Postville, Makkovik and Rigolet.
Communities that will directly benefit from the project: Rigolet, Makkovik, Postville, Hopedale and Nain (all communities in Nunatsiavut).
Country: Canada
Other Organizations Involved: Memorial University, Department of Earth Sciences; Dalhousie University, Department of Oceanography; Queen’s University, Department of Geography; Nunatsiavut Government and Hakai Institute.
@ John Winters
Background
Impacts on Nunatsiavut coastal ecosystems include climate forcings from the marine side (e.g., current changes, freshening of shelf seawater). On the terrestrial side, these coastal ecosystems interact with a wide variety of river catchments where the quantity and quality of river discharge reflects differences in coastal watershed geomorphology, size, distribution of wetlands, permafrost, and glaciers, in addition to climate factors. These marine and terrestrial influences are superimposed upon a latitudinal gradient of temperature and precipitation regime and change. Therefore, the range of environmental conditions and change across Nunatsiavut coastal ecosystems requires the identification of representative river-monitoring locations to make monitoring feasible and locally relevant despite many challenges (e.g., ice cover, violent floods with ice break-up, lack of overland route site access).
Goals
- Identify Nunatsiavut coastal watershed hydrobiogeochemical attributes (water flow, its timing, geological, chemical and biological attributes);
- Integrate local Inuit knowledge and those attributes to: i) classify watersheds via the overall role they play locally; ii) identify a representative network of river monitoring sites; and iii) generate local methodologies that work in the Nunatsiavut context.
Main activities
In collaboration with community members with long-standing knowledge of their coastal environment, we will establish locally-informed classification of watershed attributes and priority ranking of Nunatsiavut watersheds. We will use a cluster analysis found successful in predictive mapping of complex regions with sparse observations in other regions. Though informed by hydrobiogeochemical watershed attributes, an iterative process using the cluster analysis to classify and evaluate the watershed scheme will prioritize community-based evaluation derived from local knowledge and inquiry. This is an important goal for this vast region where hydrometric stations are sparse (four in all of Nunatsiavut) and chosen based on other priorities (mining and hydroelectric operation).
Expected outcomes
This project will result in locally-adapted infrastructure and methodologies for river monitoring. An important example within the region and beyond, the results will demonstrate a critical approach to establishing and building capacity for locally-focused environmental monitoring, serving the needs of communities on the front line of rapid climate change. The outcomes also represent a key example of Inuit knowledge and scientific data integration in support of community-based monitoring capacity aimed at addressing and adapting to the impacts of climate change.