Salluit, Nunavik

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Year(s) Funded: 2010-2011
Topic Area: Access to Land
Contact: Adam Lewis, Makivik Corporation, (a_lewis@makivik.org)
Partners: Makivik Corporation, Qaqqalik Landholding Corporation, Strata360
Website: http://www.makivik.org

Title: Real-time Monitoring for Travel Safety and Food Security in Salluit, Nunavik

Action: Climate change in the form of warmer and shorter winters is affecting Inuit subsistence activities, resulting in shorter ice season, reduced access to traditional resources and increased risks for travel during the winter season associated with less stable and/or thinner ice. This project assessed these impacts and implemented a monitoring program for purposes of travel safety and food security. The monitoring program was designed as a multi-seasonal, multi-year program and allowed community members to evaluate travel safety conditions as they relate to local weather patterns, through a web portal in real time.

The project was conducted in a multi-phase approach and included: Research and planning; Community consultations and collection of Inuit knowledge; Geospatial data processing and community fieldwork; and Web portal development, monitoring, communication of results and training.

Results: The project was grounded in Inuit knowledge and identified the following:
  • Most frequently used hunting and fishing grounds in winter;
  • Most frequently used travel routes to key subsistence areas and how they have been changing in recent times;
  • The current method used by community members of determining which travel routes are safe to take; and
  • The usefulness of visual aids and real time weather data in choosing safer travel routes and most appropriate mechanism for delivering real-time data.

Outputs:  
  • Traditional Ecological Knowledge database: Information collected during community consultations was used to update the Traditional Ecological Knowledge database initially collected in 1970s.
  • Weather stations: Three key travel routes were identified to key subsistence areas as well as desired locations for six weather stations. Two weather stations were installed.
  • Web portal: Developed to disseminate climate change information and to provide real time access to information from the weather stations located along the key travel routes. The monitoring tool assists subsistence hunters to make safer decisions reducing delays in accessing traditional foods and through improved travel safety reduce the number of travel-related accidents.