Feasibility study towards the GSIS – Greenland Snow and Ice Service

Researchers: Thomas Ingeman-Nielsen, Associate Professor, and postdoc Marco Marcer, DTU Sustain, Arctic DTU – Ilinniarfeqarfik Sisimiut.

Background, purpose and research question(s):
In the past year, our research group and local stakeholders have been cooperating to establish the Greenland Snow
and Ice Service – a public service providing expert opinion on sea ice, avalanches and glacier conditions to improve
travel safety in winter. However, we have a major research question which is still unanswered: how users of the
backcountry in winter would react to such service? We aim to know how these hazards are perceived by the locals
and how/if they would use the advice provide by the service to plan their trip. Answering this question is relevant as
we need to understand what king of service and communication strategy would be most efficient.

Methods for inclusion of society and dissemination:
All winter hazards presented in this proposal were or are going to be assessed based on local expertise. The communication strategy will be designed in dialogue with the local stakeholders. The written text is going to be translated and available in Greenlandic, as well as in Danish and English, thanks to a local translator we already collaborated with during project SOLO.

Granted: 98.242,00 kr.