Situation:
Beyond the Arctic circle, in the northernmost mainland region of Norway, the IMPETUS Arctic demonstration site in Troms and Finnmark County shares its eastern borders with Sweden, Finland and Russia.
Fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, mining, oil and gas and reindeer herding are the largest economic sectors. With fewer than 250,000 residents in more than 70,000 km2 of land, communities and infrastructure are nevertheless at risk from landslides, rockfalls, avalanches and fjord tsunamis triggered by climate-change-driven changes such as warming, intense precipitation, unstable snow cover, glacial retreat and sea level rise.
PROGNOSIS
With winter temperatures already 4-5°C higher than the 20th Century average, the rapidity of climate change is already well perceived and adaptation plans are being developed.
Contact this team | Kontakt dette teamet :
- Torill Nyseth – torill.nyseth[@]uit.no
- Stein Arne Rånes – stein.a.raanes[@]tffk.no

Issues:

Fisheries and aquaculture declining
- Fish productivity and suitability of sites for aquaculture impacted by global warming, sea level changes, oceanographic variables, frequency and magnitude of extreme events.
- More precipitation and extreme weather exacerbate these problems and increase physical and biological risks, such as harmful algal blooms.

Hazard risks increasing
- Landslides, rockfalls, avalanches increasingly likely as climate change drives warming, intense precipitation, unstable snow cover, permafrost thawing, glacial retreat, and groundwater changes.
- Communities and infrastructure threatened by fjord tsunamis, river blockages and environmental destruction if high-risk slopes destabilise.

Flooding and water management
- Commercial and industrial sites affected by flooding from extreme sea levels in low-lying areas.
- The northern location and climate change factors may affect urban water systems.
Ambitions within IMPETUS:
Create a regional Resilience Knowledge Booster
with datasets, observing systems and knowledge resources from economic actors, citizens’ groups, research institutions and other stakeholders.
Provide the stakeholder community with modelling tools
to develop local and regional scenarios of climate change and future impacts.
Develop a 4-dimensional digital twin
of the coastal area, with all available knowledge of the territory and advanced visualisation techniques.
Co-create packages of innovative solutions and adaptation pathways
using the digital twin and Resilience Knowledge Booster.
Demonstrate outputs and best practices
of the Resilience Knowledge Booster and digital twin to decision-making bodies to reinforce the Troms & Finnmark County planning activities.
Contribute to the adaptation and climate-proofing of Tromsø city’s infrastructural systems and urban water management
in conjunction with a municipality project on climate adaptive development along the waterfront.
to pave the way for:
Continuation of the Resilience Knowledge Booster
as a stable initiative of UiT and the county administration, supporting climate change adaptation plans and the long-term resilience of the region.
Medium-to-long-term financial planning
based on IMPETUS adaptation pathways.
Test solutions:
Early warning system for avalanches, rockslides, or landslides
Technology Readiness Level 7-8/9
Climate-change-driven changes such as warming, intense precipitation, erratic and unstable snow cover, permafrost thawing, glacial retreat, and changes to groundwater regimes each contribute to the increasing risks of hazards such as landslides, rockfalls, rockslides and snow avalanches. Secondary consequences such as fjord tsunamis, rivers becoming dammed and flooding also bring high risks to infrastructure and communities. Most of the region’s dangerous sites are monitored, but the currently used early warning system needs substantial improvement to allow evacuation of people into safe areas.
In IMPETUS
- Implement and demonstrate new multiple sensors and advanced automatic interpretation of signals to increase the system’s reliability;
- Increase the system’s anticipation time by 30% to better ensure timely evacuation is possible.
This work is linked with:
- Åknes/Tafjord Emergency Response IKS (page in Norwegian)
Digital Twin for freshwater and marine management
Technology Readiness Level 5-7
Evaluation of climate change risks is traditionally carried out via the crossing of results from impact modelling under different climate scenarios, vulnerability, and exposure assessment. In most planning conditions the risk assessment is generated from the overlapping of different Geographic Information System (GIS) layers; an effective methodology that is not easy for non-technical people to interpret, however, and is difficult to use in stakeholder co-design processes.
In IMPETUS
- Demonstrate the potential of integrating state-of-the-art GIS representation of multiple variables with advanced 3D visualisation techniques to generate a 4D (3D+time) digital twin of the territory, making visualisation of risk areas and possible impacts much more effective and user friendly;
- Use the digital twin to support the co-design of Marine Spatial Planning decisions for better regulation of fishery, aquaculture, and other marine areas;
- Use the digital twin to support the co-design of climate-proofing actions to protect coastal cities from sea-level rise.
This work is linked with:
- Troms&Finnmark County Marine Spatial Planning programme 2021-2024
- EU Destination Earth Initiative, DestinE,
- Water Framework Directive,
- Digital Single Market Strategy,
- Netherlands Delta Program,
- Greenathon by the Hellenic Ministry of Environment and Energy,
Economic impact assessment of physical climate risk
Technology Readiness Level 4-5
Socio-Economic tools and risk projections enable the assessment of climate risks and the establishment of projections and metrics regarding future investments.
In IMPETUS
- Identify highly vulnerable hot-spots using open datasets for Copernicus services and satellite-derived variables;
- Transform this knowledge into a specific regional model and include this in the Resilience Knowledge Booster;
- Use the RKB and regional model to elaborate economic assessment metrics to aid decision making about investments and future mitigation plans.
This work is linked with:
- European Investment Bank
- European Central Bank