Understanding Arctic shipping impacts and mitigation: Impact assessment as a tool for knowledge brokerage
Date
2019-07-26
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0000-0002-3315-8096
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Arctic shipping is one area that presents challenges for regulators in a rapidly changing Arctic environment; declining sea ice due to climate change, resource development, regional demographics, and tourism trends combine to drive an increase in traffic. Impact assessment (IA) is one regulatory tool used to assess, mitigate, and monitor the impacts of shipping. The complex nature of polar operations, gaps in scientific baselines, and the active use of the marine environment by local resource users means that marine-related concerns can dominate the regulatory process. This research examined how knowledge about Arctic shipping impacts and mitigation are exchanged through IA processes.
Methods involved a document review of past project assessments carried out by the Nunavut Impact Review Board (NIRB) to identify the routine shipping impacts considered in decision-making, the information needs of rights holders and stakeholders about shipping, and how the NIRB addresses impacts and needs throughout its process. Focus groups conducted with the NIRB complemented the review and provided an institutional perspective on how the NIRB assesses shipping as well as challenges and opportunities.
The information needs of rights holders were diverse and dependent on the scale of the project, community dynamics and histories. Regulatory stakeholders were unsurprisingly concerned with topics related to shipping that fall under their respective jurisdictions. Despite the variety of comments submitted to the IA process, some common themes included the presence of uncertainty, concern over the cumulative effects of increasing Arctic shipping, and questions around the appropriateness and effectiveness of existing impact management strategies in Arctic environments. The NIRB manages these concerns through unique process components intended for better knowledge exchange, comprehensive monitoring, and adaptive management in order to enable longer-term learning that extends beyond immediate project assessments. This research contributes to an understanding of Nunavut’s unique IA process that is relatively unexplored in the literature as well as builds an understanding of Arctic shipping from an IA perspective. It helps address needs identified by the NIRB for helping advance engagement and knowledge exchange between proponents, intervenors, and communities to support an enhanced understanding of the marine-related impacts considered in IA processes.
Description
Keywords
impact assessment, arctic shipping, knowledge brokerage, Nunavut
Citation
Degree
Master of Arts (M.A.)
Department
Geography and Planning
Program
Geography