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INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research

Permafrost thaw RIsks to nature and Society: Multidisciplinary efforts towards solving a multi-dimensional problem

Alternative title: Permafrost thaw RIsks to nature and Society

Awarded: NOK 4.5 mill.

Permafrost is the only part of cryosphere inhabited by people and thus permafrost thaw and thaw associated land surface change is a multi-dimensional problem that affects both nature and society. There is an urgent need to combine knowledge to identify, quantify, and find solutions; however, the existing and upcoming studies on permafrost thaw risks and damage assessments on human infrastructure focus only on local or regional scale. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national research towards finding solutions is urgently needed, where the collaborations need to be built on many years of dialogue. PRISM is a unique opportunity for multi-national and multi-disciplinary collaboration ranging from observations, modeling, engineering, social sciences, and users such as stakeholders and decision-makers focused around the theme permafrost thaw risks to nature and society. PRISM has formed collaborations across three countries and different disciplines: Norway, China and Germany. Through this collaboration, PRISM has facilitated modelling workshops, fieldwork training and dissemination of results through attendance at international conferences, invited talks and mainstream media.

Permafrost is the only part of cryosphere inhabited by people and thus permafrost thaw and thaw associated land surface change is a multi-dimensional problem that affects both nature and society. Due to its multi-dimensional aspects in permafrost thaw associated risks, there is an urgent need to combine knowledge to identify, quantify, and find solutions; however, the existing and upcoming studies on permafrost thaw risks and damage assessments on human infrastructure focus only on local or regional scale. Multi-disciplinary and multi-national research towards finding solutions is urgently needed, where the collaborations need to be built on many years of dialogue. PRISM is a unique opportunity for multi-national and multi-disciplinary collaboration ranging from observations, modeling, engineering, social sciences, and users such as stakeholders and decision-makers focused around the theme ‘permafrost thaw risks to nature and society’. PRISM will create collaborations across six countries and different disciplines: Norway, China, Germany, Russia, and USA. Through this collaboration, Norway will facilitate leading academic environment in the topic of permafrost thaw risks in nature and society. PRISM is organized around seven target groups: 1) permafrost observations, 2) permafrost modeling, 3) Arctic climate, 4) engineering, 5) social sciences, 6) education, and 7) users to collaborate towards better understanding permafrost thaw risks to nature and climate, educating the findings, and cross knowledge transfer to users such as stakeholders and decision-makers. PRISM activities include 1) joint courses and summer schools (lecture and field courses), 2) workshops and stakeholder meetings, 3) annual meetings, 4) Short-Term Scientific Missions, 5) stakeholder involvement, 6) project development, and 7) dissemination.

Funding scheme:

INTPART-International Partnerships for Excellent Education and Research