DOCUMENTING LOCAL ICE DYNAMICS AROUND NUNAVIK’S MARINE INFRASTRUCTURES THROUGH REMOTE SENSING AND LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

摘要

This work is part of the project "Climate Change and Marine Infrastructures in Nunavik - Impacts and Adaptation". The global objective of this 4 year project is to predict changes in the ice conditions, water levels and storm patterns that could affect the durability of the marine infrastructures and their safe access by Inuit communities. The specific objective of this work package is to document and monitor the ice behaviour around the marine infrastructures of three Canadian Inuit villages presenting different environmental conditions: Umiujaq (Hudson Bay), Quaqtaq (Hudson Strait) and Kuujjuaq (Koksoak River), from spring 2009 to spring 2012. The approach integrates three different levels of information. First, traditional knowledge interviews were conducted to document the past conditions and recent changes concerning the ice cover around the communities. Then, cameras were installed near each marine infrastructure to monitor the ice conditions hourly. Finally, high resolution Radarsat-2 images (3m and 8m resolution) were used to map the ice cover every 3-4 days. Freeze-up and breakup processes have been documented through ice-in and ice out dates, ice duration, ice concentration and types, ice movements and ice events. Inter annual variability is discussed. Conditions that could be potentially harmful for the marine infrastructures are identified.