Svalbard shipping activities in changing conditions: community perspectives

Since the beginning of the century, the shipping activities have increased dramatically in the Barents Sea including the Svalbard Archipelago. Sea ice retreat,changes in the global market and an increasing interest in new tourism industries such as cruise tourism are some of the main drivers of this growth. A limited number of studies from other Arctic regions (e.g. Canadian Arctic) indicate the overall positive and negative effects of this development for coastal communities. The consequences of such development for local communities in Svalbard have not receive much attention in the scientific literature. Thus, there is an increasing need for detailed analysis of the impact of shipping, given the transitional changes in Svalbard. Therefore, the primary objective of this work will be to study (via fieldworks), analyse and present result on possible impacts of shipping activities in the Barents Sea for local community in Longyearbyen. The data will be collected by conducting semi-structured interviews with key informants, observations and field note.