Social Resilience of a Northern Community to Energy Insecurity
Date
2023-11-23
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
0009-0001-3017-1551
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Energy insecurity is part of life for many rural and remote communities, including Indigenous communities across Canada’s North. As energy systems become more vulnerable and power outages more common, owing in part to aging energy infrastructure and the increasing frequency of severe storms due to climate change, significant research has focused on improving energy infrastructure to make power systems more resilient, including advances in micro-grid technologies. However, despite the research on the engineering attributes of resilient energy systems, little attention has been paid to social resilience—specifically, the impacts of outages on northern and remote communities and how communities cope and adapt to energy insecurity. The purpose of this thesis is to understand the social implications of energy insecurity and community and individual coping mechanism(s) in a northern community. A conceptual framework on social resilience to energy insecurity is developed and applied to Deschambault Lake, Saskatchewan, using semi-structured interviews with community members to explore how communities cope with and adapt to energy insecurity such as power outages or the high cost of power. Results will advance scholarly understanding of social resilience to energy insecurity in northern communities and identify important coping mechanisms that may be valuable for other communities as energy systems slowly transition. The conceptual framework used to explore social resilience to energy insecurity can be applied to any community in the North.
Description
Keywords
Energy security, social resilience
Citation
Degree
Master of Environment and Sustainability (M.E.S.)
Department
School of Environment and Sustainability
Program
Environment and Sustainability