LOGS – Local Glaciers Sisimiut
Research leader: Renato Colucci, Research Scientist, Institute of Polar Sciences, National Research Council of Italy.
Other participants and affiliated institutions: Marco Marcer, Postdoc, Arctic DTU Sisimiut; Costanza Del Gobbo, Research fellow, National Research Council of Italy; Greenland Winter Warning Association; GEUS; Nukissiorfiit.
Research area, purpose, and research questions:
The project LOGS aims to start a detailed monitoring of the Aqqutikitsoq glacier area, near Sisimiut. This area is relevant to the local community for several aspects. First, these glaciers provide summer runoff for the hydropower plant of Sisimiut. Their future evolution will directly impact the efficiency of the town’s energy production. Second, the Aqqutikitsoq Mountains are a popular recreational area and the municipality has given concession to develop tourist activities as summer skiing and glacier hiking. In this context, the community need an assessment of the crevasses and icefalls in the glacier area, and their future evolution. Therefore, the project LOGS is a great opportunity to start and maintaining a monitoring system in Aqqutikitsoq. The project is developed as a collaboration between the ISP and the Greenland Winter Warning Association (GWWA), which is taking in charge hazard assessment for winter recreational activities in the backcountry. While ISP provides the scientific knowledge and methodology to develop the monitoring system, the GWWA provides the knowledge of the site and the anchoring of the project to the local community.
Overall, the project has two main objectives:
• Develop the basis for a long term glacier monitoring system in a new site in Greenland. , filling the existing gap from Nuuk to Disko Island.
• Develop scientific knowledge relevant for local activities and economy, strengthening the connection between research and community
LOGS results will be reached thanks to recent advances in modern image processing and remote sensing techniques to constrain past and future evolution of the cryosphere in this area, under projected global warming scenario.
Methods for competence building in the form of inclusion of society and dissemination to society:
The project is developed as a collaboration between the ISP and the Greenland Winter Warning Association (GWWA), which is taking in charge hazard assessment for winter recreational activities in the backcountry. GWWA will be engaged in participating to the project guiding the ISP personnel and scientists on the glaciers as well as supporting the field operations. This will give the opportunity to local personnel to learn how to map glaciers and perform mass balance measurements to continue the monitoring in the future on their own.
In order to create a community of awareness around this issue, we aim to develop a dedicated webpage to report our observations. The users will be informed about the project also through the GWWA socials (facebook and instagram). We also plan to organize at least one public event in Sisimiut to explain the activities and outcomes of the project as well as to produce a short movie/documentary in English with subtitles in Greenlandic.
Granted: 246.000 DKK.
