The Nuna Project: Effective mitigation and adaptation to changing ground conditions for resilient coastal futures

(2022-2025)

The Nuna project is set in the Inuvialuit Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories. Nuna is a Siglit Inuvialuktun word for ‘land’, ‘country’, and ‘soil’. Like several other Arctic coastal communities, Tuktoyaktuk is experiencing the brunt of climate change and its impacts. Erosion, subsidence and flooding are threatening the physical, cultural and social landscape of the community. At current rates of change, Tuktoyaktuk is having to rapidly adapt in place and plan for community relocation.

The Nuna project arose from ongoing community consultations where priorities and necessary adaptation measures were identified to foster community resilience in a rapidly changing climate. The project aims to address the following community concerns through five different work packages (WPs) that are investigating:

• Coastal erosion,
• Ground subsidence,
• Air quality (dust),
• Nearshore sedimentation,
• and the socio-economic and cultural impacts of these risks.

Professor Mylene Riva is the principal investigator of WP5, which is seeking to understand the relationship between physical, social, and cultural landscape changes. Morgen Bertheussen (PhD student) is coordinating and leading the research activities of WP5, with help from Lauren Traboulsee (undergraduate Research Assistant).

Through this collaborative research partnership, the Nuna project aligns with the objectives and actions outlined in Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami (ITK)’s National Inuit Strategy on Research by advancing Inuit governance in research (ITK objective 1), enhancing ethical conduct in research (ITK objective 2), ensuring that funding is aligned with Inuit research priorities (ITK objective 3), warranting Inuit access, ownership, and control over data and information (ITK objective 4), and lastly contributing capacity building (ITK objective 5).

The Nuna project is led by the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk and Professor Lim at Northumbria University (United Kingdom). This project is funded by the Canada-Inuit-Nunangat-United Kingdom (CINUK), research program and the Fonds de Recherche du Québec (FRQ). Recognizing the limits of Nuna as a fixed-term project, recommendations for effective and culturally appropriate solutions and policy guidance to address climate impacts of climate change beyond the lifespan of this project will be made