Workshop to develop joint future permafrost hydrology research in Svalbard

It is increasingly recognized that permafrost hydrology is an important component in the Arctic system and needs to be better understood in light of climate chanage. At the same time we now know based on IPY research that the warmest continuous permafrost in the high arctic exist in Svalbard. Comprehensive understanding of sub-permafrost groundwater conditions to considerable depth is also needed to support subsurface CO2 sequestration and nuclear waste storage projects in northern high latitudes. While several earth system components that influence and are affected by permafrost hydrology (climate, glaciers, active layer monitoring) are studied extensively in Svalbard, dedicated and systematic hydrological research currently receives little attention. S valbard may well have the potential to become a unique and key node for permafrost hydrological investigation in both Europe and globally, and thereby take a leading role in advancing and integrating this scientific field in Arctic research. We therefore will like to organise an SSF supported workshop dedicated to this topic in Svalbard in the early autumn of 2012. The workshop will be held at UNIS in Longyearbyen enabling field visits to the present permafrost and hydrology installations primarily in th e Adventdalen area. As the aim is to merge several research fields: Hydrology, hydrogeology, geocryology and permafrost thermal studies and periglacial geomorphology, we have composed a list of key participants that we have got confirmation will like to c ontribute to the workshop: Co organisers: H. Christiansen (UNIS) & H. Kooi (VU Amsterdam). Key participants: A. Braathen (UNIS), B. Frengstad (Geological Survey Norway), H.L. Egil & C. Hervé (Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate), A. Hodson (S heffield Uni. UK /UNIS), V. Bense (Uni. of East Anglia), S. Haldorsen (Em. Agric. Univ. Aas, ), B. Moorman (Univ. of Calgary), K. Yoshikawa (Uni. of Fairbanks Alaska). A Frampton (Stocholm Uni.).