Abstracts
SEARCH Open Science Meeting
October 27, 2003
Seattle, Washington, USA
Understanding Human and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Arctic: the Imandra Watershed Project (Kola, Russia)
Alexey A. Voinov1, Lars Bromley2, Tatiana Moiseenko3, Vladimir Selin4
1Gund Institute for Ecological Economics, University of Vermont, 590 Main Street, Burlington, VT, 05446, USA, Phone 802-656-2985, Fax 802-656-8683, alexey.voinov@uvm.edu
2International Office, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20005, USA, Phone 202-326-6495, Fax 202-289-4958, lbromley@aaas.org
3Institute of Water Problems of Russian Academy of Sciences, 3, Gubkin St., GSP-1, Moscow, 119991, Russia, Phone 7-095-135-3320, Fax 7-095-135-5415, tatyana@aqua.laser.ru
4Institute for Economic Problems, Kola Science Center, Fersman st. 24 A, Apatity, 184209, Russia, Phone 7-815-557-6472, Fax 7-815-557-4844, selin@iep.kolasc.net.ru
The Imandra Lake watershed is located in one of the most developed regions in the Arctic - the Kola Peninsula of Russia. There are approximately 300,000 people living on the roughly 27,000 square kilometer watershed, making it one of the most densely populated areas of the Arctic. Most of the people are involved in large-scale mineral extraction and processing and the infrastructure needed to support this industry. A US-Russian research effort has been started for the Imandra Lake watershed that has put human dynamics within the framework of ecosystem change to integrate available information. The observation period is one of both rapid economic growth and human expansion, and a period of overall economic decline in the past decade. We are applying the Participatory Integrated Assessment (PIA) approach to bridge the information gaps and link scientific findings to the decision making process. Incorporating information on the vastly perturbed ecosystem, we are observing an increasingly vulnerable human population in varying states of awareness about their local environment and fully cognizant of their economic troubles, with many determined to attempt maintenance of relatively high densities in the near future even as many residents of Northern Russia migrate south. Based on this information, a set of likely development scenarios for further analysis have been derived. Thus far, a series of workshops have involved the citizens and local decision makers in an attempt to tap their knowledge of the region, and to increase their awareness about the linkages between the socio-economic and ecological components. A hierarchy of qualitative and quantitative models is under development for use in understanding the complex integrated processes in the watershed, structuring the available data sets, and outlining potential scenarios.
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