Climate Change Impact Assessment for Surface Transportation in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska

WA-RD 772.

Toward Universal Broadband in Rural Alaska

The TERRA-Southwest project is extending broadband service to 65 communities in the Bristol Bay, Bethel and Yukon-Kuskokwim regions. A stimulus project funded by a combination of grants and loans from the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), TERRA-Southwest has installed a middle-mile network using optical fiber and terrestrial microwave. Last-mile service will be through fixed wireless or interconnection with local telephone networks. The State of Alaska, through its designee Connect Alaska, also received federal stimulus funding from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) for tasks that include support for an Alaska Broadband Task Force “to both formalize a strategic broadband plan for the state of Alaska and coordinate broadband activities across relevant agencies and organizations.” Thus, a study of the impact of the TERRA project in southwest Alaska is both relevant and timely. This first phase provides baseline data on current access to and use of ICTs and Internet connectivity in rural Alaska, and some insights about perceived benefits and potential barriers to adoption of broadband. It is also intended to provide guidance to the State Broadband Task Force in determining how the extension of broadband throughout the state could contribute to education, social services, and economic activities that would enhance Alaska’s future. Results of the research could also be used proactively to develop strategies to encourage broadband adoption, and to identify applications and support needed by users with limited ICT skills.Connect Alaska. The National Telecommunications and Information Administration. General Communications Incorporated.Part 1: An Analysis of Internet Use in Southwest Alaska / Introduction / Previous Studies / Current Connectivity / Analytical Framework and Research Methodology / Demographics / Mobile Phones: Access and Use / Access to the Internet / Internet Useage / Considerations about Internet Service / Interest in Broadband / Sources of News / Comparison with National Data / Internet Use by Businesses and Organizations / What Difference may Broadband make in the Region? / Conclusiongs / Part 2 Literature Review / Reference

Develop Guidelines for Pavement Preservation Treatments and for Building a Pavement Preservation Program Platform for Alaska

INE/AUTC 12.0

Sustainable Agriculture for Alaska and the Circumpolar North: Part I. Development and Status of Northern Agriculture and Food Security

Alaska is food insecure, importing the vast majority of its agricultural products and commodities and maintaining a minimal year-round food supply. Much of the circumpolar North, with some notable exceptions, is also food insecure and similarly reliant on foods imported from outside regions. The stark differences in food policies, food security, and overall production that exist between individual countries and regions of the circumpolar North are likely due to variability in their physical and social environments, their varying agrarian histories (e.g., Old World vs. New World), and their different first-hand experiences with food insecurity, often during wartime. Alaska’s agricultural history is unique, having progressed through periods of exploration and expansion and having experienced both success and failure. Agriculture exists today in Alaska as an underdeveloped natural resource – based industry that has been shaped by historical events and developmental processes and continually influenced by a host of environmental and socioeconomic factors. Continued interaction between stakeholders, agencies, and others will help the industry to progress to the point of meeting increasing food demands and improving food security.L’Alaska est aux prises avec l’insécurité alimentaire en ce sens que l’État importe la grande majorité de ses produits et marchandises agricoles et qu’il maintient un approvisionnement alimentaire minime à l’année. Malgré quelques exceptions remarquables, une grande partie du Nord circumpolaire souffre d’insécurité alimentaire et dépend de produits alimen­taires importés d’autres régions. Les importantes différences qui existent en matière de politiques alimentaires, d’insécurité alimentaire et de production générale entre les pays et les régions du Nord circumpolaire sont vraisemblablement attribuables aux divers environnements physiques et sociaux, à leur histoire agraire variée (celle de l’Ancien Monde par opposition à celle du Nouveau Monde) et à leurs différentes expériences directes en matière d’insécurité alimentaire, plus particulièrement en temps de guerre. L’histoire agricole de l’Alaska est unique, ayant passé par des périodes d’exploration et d’expansion, et connu tant des réussites que des échecs. De nos jours, l’agriculture en Alaska est une industrie sous-développée de ressources naturelles qui a été façonnée par des événements historiques et des processus développementaux, continuellement influencée par une panoplie de facteurs environnementaux et socioéconomiques. Les efforts collectifs déployés par les parties prenantes, les organismes et d’autres parties aideront cette industrie à progresser au point de pouvoir répondre à la demande croissante de nourriture et d’améliorer la sécurité alimentaire

Polishing The Mirror: A Multiple Methods Study Of The Relationship Between Teaching Style And The Application Of Technology In Alaska's Rural One To One Digital Classrooms

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2012This mixed method survey study examined the inter-relationships between teaching styles and the depth of classroom-based technology applications used by teachers participating in 1:1 digitally enhanced classrooms in thirteen of Alaska's rural school districts. The promise of technology to catalyze the transformation of schools into learner centric environments preparing students to be 21st century learners has not been realized. Significant first order barriers have limited the digital learning resources necessary to systemically affect pedagogical change. During the last six years, various entities have sponsored digitally enhanced learning environments to stimulate the process of education reform. These initiatives, labeled as one-to-one (1:1), brought teachers face-to-face with the challenges related to second order education reform while creating an opportunity to study changes in instructional philosophy and practice as a result of teaching in an environment rich in technology. This study explored three questions formulated to probe the relationship between pedagogical philosophy and the application of 1:1 technology to support learning: • "What is the relationship between instructional philosophy and the way teachers use technology to support learning in Alaskan high school 1:1 laptop programs?" • "How does access to a 1:1 classroom affect a teacher's instructional philosophy or practice?" • "Does access to a 1:1 digitally enhanced teaching environment facilitate the use of instructional practices consistent with Alaska Native and 21st century learner outcomes?" Ninety-four rural high school teachers responded to a survey that assessed teaching styles on a continuum from transmission to constructivist. The level of technology adoption was examined using three indices that respectively measure the professional, personal and classroom use of technology by teachers. Information derived from open ended questions was triangulated with quantitative data to develop a meaningful understanding of the study questions. Quantitative and qualitative data suggested that the majority of responding teachers identified with constructivist beliefs over traditional transmission. Teachers noted a strong positive relationship between teaching and the application of technology, yet analysis showed that constructivist beliefs were attenuated by several challenges related to management of technology. While teachers were generally aware of the potential for digital learning technologies to support Alaska Native and 21st century methods, they were outweighed by operational concerns related to the integration of technology. These study questions are significant. Digitally enhanced instructional practices help to equip students with the skills expected of 21st century learners. Perhaps even more significant is the congruence between the teaching styles traditionally used by Alaska Natives and the digitally enhanced constructivist practices made possible when using technology to augment processes for acquiring knowledge

Applying a social-ecological systems approach to human-bear encounters across the Pacific Rim: advancing resilient human-wildlife management strategies

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2014.Wildlife management is challenged with addressing human resource needs while simultaneously conserving wildlife populations. Conflicts between humans and wildlife have increased across Northern countries with the expansion of human communities and environmental changes. Lack of information exists about reasons for such occurrences. This study explores adaptive capacity and resilience in coupled human-wildlife systems through the analysis of social and ecological factors contributing to perceptions of negative and positive human-bear (Ursus spp.) encounters. I first developed a theory to evaluate human perceptions and behaviors during human-wildlife encounters. Secondly I adopted an interdisciplinary framework to analyze human-bear encounters in urbanizing regions of south Sakhalin Island, Russian Far-East, and southcentral Alaska, USA. These case studies facilitate an analysis of perception development across spatial and social scales while incorporating approaches of both social and ecological sciences. Hunting, tourism and overall anthropogenic impacts are central to bear management, whereas cultural and social interests are perceived to not be considered in bear management decision-making across study regions. In Alaska, political interests are prevalent in bear management, whereas on Sakhalin, economic interests, including illegal animal trade and poaching prevail. Across study regions the perception of an encounter with a bear was dependent on the socio-economic situation of the individual having the encounter. The higher a person's socio-economic status was, the higher was their probability to perceive bear encounters as positive. Further, spatial and social scales across which perceptions vary are identified. Scales include urban-non-urban areas, wildland-urban interfaces, and a recreation-subsistence interest divide. Outside of urban areas, people's interests in recreation versus subsistence affect their perceptions toward bear encounters. Subsistence collectors of fish, game or plants are more likely to have negative encounters. Within urban areas, increased experience with encountering bears and length of residency are associated with positive encounters, whereas closeness to residences while not in sheltered environments increases negative encounters. These findings constitute spatial and social barriers and benefits to individualistic perception formation during human-bear encounters. Their identification advances resilience in researched human-wildlife systems and helps us to understand the adaptive capacities within these communities. The successful spatially-explicit integration of social and ecological variables promotes the opportunities for integrating human dimensions in wildlife management.General Acknowledgements -- Chapter 2: Integrating complexity in the management of human-wildlife encounters -- Chapter 3: Understanding local peoples' perceptions toward bear management in Northern urbanizing regions -- Chapter 4: Spatial explicit perception mapping: socio-economic circumstances to impact perceptions and spatial pattern of human-bear encounters across scale -- Chapter 5: The impact of spatially explicit ecological and social variables on the development of perceptions during bear encounters in southcentral Alaska -- Chapter 6: General conclusions and future recommendations -- Appendices

Climate Change and the U. S. Energy Sector: Regional Vulnerabilities and Resilience Solutions

Executive Summary Changes in climate create diverse challenges across the U.S. energy system. Some energy infrastructure assets have already suffered damage or disruption in services from a variety of climate-related impacts, such as higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and more severe weather events. In the absence of concerted action to improve resilience, energy system vulnerabilities pose a threat to America’s national security, energy security, economic wellbeing, and quality of life. Building climate change resilience into our energy infrastructure planning is a challenging and complex undertaking. Planning horizons can span several decades (the typical service life of most energy assets), associated investments can extend into the billions of dollars, and relevant technologies can change rapidly. Some climate change impacts may trigger cascading effects on natural resources, energy demand, and supply chains. Challenges are compounded when addressing climate risks at the regional or local level, where climate change projections are subject to less certainty than at the national scale. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has proactively launched numerous initiatives to support and facilitate energy sector climate preparedness and resilience at national, regional, and local levels. In addition to enhancing resilience to climate change, these actions may also have co-benefits that accommodate non-climate resilience needs (e.g., aging infrastructure, cybersecurity, physical attacks, geomagnetic storms). To assist infrastructure owners and utility planners, DOE has compiled this report on region-specific energy vulnerabilities to climate change (see Figure ES-1) and current resilience solutions. Key Climate Impacts and Regional Vulnerabilities Vulnerabilities to climate change vary across regions depending upon the nature of the climate impacts (see text box), the types and age of energy systems present, and the projected combined impacts on operations, energy demand, and energy supply chains. Major energy systems affected by regional climate impacts include the following: Oil and gas upstream operations are most vulnerable in the Southeast, Southern Great Plains, and Alaska. Fuel transport in every region is vulnerable to a variety of climate impacts, including increasing heavy precipitation, heat waves, drought, hurricanes, and sea level rise-enhanced storm surge. Thermoelectric power generation is vulnerable to increasing temperatures and reduced water availability in most regions, particularly in the Midwest, Great Plains, and southern regions. Hydropower is vulnerable to reduced snowpack, earlier melting, and changes to precipitation patterns, mainly in western regions. Bioenergy crops in the Midwest and Northern Great Plains may be harmed by higher temperatures and more frequent droughts and floods. Electric grid operations and infrastructure in every region is vulnerable to a variety of climate impacts, including increasing temperatures, heavy rainfall events, wildfire, hurricanes, and storm surge. Electricity demand is affected by increasing temperatures and is a key vulnerability in nearly every region

Planning in practice for resilience and climate change in extreme and extreme-ing urban environments

Resilience and climate action have evolved to become key priorities within planning policy and practice in many urban contexts, especially in relation to climate change and extreme weather; manifesting themselves within urban planning practice. In light of the increasing vulnerability to long and short-term climate related challenges, it is crucial to understand how resilience and climate action can be fully established within planning practice; at what scales should planners be involved and how can planning be integrated into other resilience related endeavours? Like urban planning, addressing climate change in cities requires a long-term outlook. Beyond the environmental and physical nature of these challenges, there is a social aspect to the relationship between urban planning and climate change. The abilities of communities to cope with the distributional impacts of climate change in cities demands a multi-faceted approach from planners to engage with the complex interplay of resilience, climate change and a range of urban stakeholders, often with differing priorities. As resilience is growing as an urban planning concept, so too is the pressure for planners to fundamentally change the nature of their working practices to incorporate a more flexible and collaborative approach to resilience into their remit. Based on the results of document analyses and semi-structured interviews from the case study cities of Anchorage, Alaska and Boston, Massachusetts, USA, this thesis explores the complexities of planning’s engagement with the resilience agenda, focusing particularly on the production process of specific climate-related plans, to investigate the role planning plays in the resilience building process, and the differing approaches taken by extreme and extreme-ing cities to enact their visions of resilience. The thesis contributes to the urban resilience planning narrative, placing planning within the wider resilience agenda, highlighting shortcomings such as stakeholder communication and community involvement, whilst exploring planning’s capacity to address siloed working environments and break down barriers to pursue meaningful and successfully implemented resilience solutions in increasingly vulnerable cities

FORESTRY AND FIRE MANAGEMENT IN THE WEST: A DYNAMIC HOMELAND SECURITY ENEMY

This thesis answers two questions: How has the difference between western states’ forestry and fire management practices affected wildland fire response and how can forestry and fire management stakeholders address wildfire scale and frequency in the western United States? Through a comparative analysis approach, the research presented in this thesis showcases three western states (Arizona, California, and Alaska) to offer a glimpse at similar wildfire behavior and impacts across the West. Thus, the research provided in this thesis applies to most western states and underscores the point that resiliency against wildfires is imperative to ensuring the protection of the nation’s natural resources, communities, and critical infrastructure. As a result, this thesis offers four recommendations that include community involvement, the allocation and utilization of resources (i.e., personnel, equipment, and technology), immediate action from policymakers, and examination of alternative solutions (i.e., technology and “Smokey the Beaver”). In all, the wildfire threat will continue to evolve in the United States, especially in the West, so action must be taken, and solutions must be identified for years to come to mitigate wildfire impacts on forests, communities, and critical infrastructure.Civilian, Arizona Department of Emergency and Military AffairsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited