{"id":733652,"date":"2025-02-10T13:09:24","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T21:09:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/?post_type=arcuser&p=733652"},"modified":"2025-02-10T13:09:24","modified_gmt":"2025-02-10T21:09:24","slug":"nature-based-solutions-aim-to-fortify-point-hope","status":"publish","type":"arcuser","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/about\/newsroom\/arcuser\/nature-based-solutions-aim-to-fortify-point-hope","title":{"rendered":"Nature-Based Solutions Aim to Fortify Point Hope"},"author":5752,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sync_status":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","castos_file_data":"","podmotor_file_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[24982],"tags":[490632,491502,10332,491492,491512],"arcuser_issues":[491442],"class_list":["post-733652","arcuser","type-arcuser","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-end-notes","tag-alaska","tag-coastal-erosion","tag-imagery","tag-point-hope","tag-us-army-corps-of-engineers","arcuser_issues-winter-2025"],"acf":{"short_description":"The community of Point Hope, Alaska, is using GIS to devise nature-based solutions to stem the loss of land through coastal erosion.\r\n","pdf":{"host_remotely":false,"file":"","file_url":""},"flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"On a narrow peninsula in northwest Alaska, about 800 people, predominantly I\u00f1upiat, have made Point Hope one of the longest continuously inhabited settlements in North America.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s a \u201clittle point with a lot of history,\u201d said Lauren Bosche of the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. Yet the coastal land where Point Hope was first settled about 2,500 years ago could soon succumb to history itself.\r\n\r\nFor decades, waves have slowly carved away the northern coast of this narrow piece of land that juts into the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Now, as the region faces a tipping point, Point Hope is increasingly threatened by coastal erosion, thawing permafrost, and rising sea levels."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":733662,"image_position":"right","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"In early 2020, a three-person team from the public benefit corporation and Esri partner EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc., met with members of the trilateral committee that runs the city\u2014the tribal Village of Point Hope, the municipal government of the City of Point Hope, and the Indigenous-owned Tiki\u0121aq Corporation. The team aimed to use GIS technology\u2014including drone imagery and ArcGIS Pro\u2014to get a clearer picture of how the changing climate impacts Point Hope, and what can be done to mitigate the effects of these changes on the environment and the community."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Disappearing Permafrost Threatens the Arctic Region<\/h2>\r\nErosion now consumes 1\u20132 meters of coastline annually, which has forced Point Hope\u2019s Indigenous residents inland since the 1970s. Recently, erosion has accelerated along parts of the coastline. The ice that normally shelters Point Hope\u2019s shores is not forming early enough in the year to protect the community from violent fall storms.\r\n\r\nThese changes have also disrupted the I\u00f1upiat people\u2019s ability to hunt wildlife for survival and threatened their cultural heritage.\r\n\r\n\u201cThere\u2019s an incredible amount of archaeological history that\u2019s already been taken by the ocean,\u201d Bosche said.\r\n\r\nUnfortunately, Point Hope\u2019s circumstances aren\u2019t unique. According to the Woodwell Climate Research Center, the last 20 years have seen a seven percent loss of near-surface permafrost due to a warming climate."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":733672,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"The center\u2019s Permafrost Pathways project maps and monitors Arctic warming. Scientists with the center note that permafrost underlies 15 percent of the land in the Northern Hemisphere, and 3.6 million people are at risk if it thaws. Up to 150 billion tons of carbon emissions stored in permafrost could be released into the atmosphere by 2100 as a result. The thaw is also exposing rivers and streams to once-stored minerals that make waterways in parts of Alaska more acidic.\r\n\r\nFor the I\u00f1upiat people of Point Hope\u2014a place also known as Tiki\u0121aq\u2014the thawing land also threatens their traditional way of life by making it more difficult to store the meat from their hunts of caribou, whales, and seals. \u201cYou can\u2019t put a bowhead whale in a chest freezer,\u201d said Ellen Jessup McDermott of EA. And people can\u2019t simply run to the grocery store. \u201cPoint Hope is very isolated. It\u2019s very expensive to fly anything in there,\u201d she said.\r\n\r\nNative residents rely on si\u0121luaqs\u2014large ice cellars carved into the ground that, for generations, have kept meat cold. The community has recently been losing these cellars to erosion and may have fewer than 10 left. In the few that remain, mold or water has crept inside.\r\n\r\nPreserving traditional structures is among several priorities that the community of Point Hope outlined in the North Slope Borough\u2019s 2017 comprehensive plan.\r\n\r\nTo tackle the many challenges faced by Point Hope residents, the collaborators needed to fill data gaps. They first collected traditional ecological knowledge\u2014learning from the people who not only live there but also survive on what\u2019s there for food.\r\n\r\n\u201cThey know better than anybody what\u2019s going on where they live,\u201d Jessup McDermott said. \u201cThat data is crucial.\u201d She arranged meetings, paying people to participate in formal interviews. Meeting in person was key. And at those meetings, community members were often encouraged to draw what they knew on maps.\r\n\r\nOne of EA\u2019s certified GIS professionals, Jessica Morrissey, used ArcGIS Pro to help the team view existing conditions, plan fieldwork, and perform spatial analysis. \u201cThe maps helped us understand what we saw at the sites and develop a nonverbal, intuitive sense of what\u2019s happening there,\u201d Jessup McDermott said."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":733682,"image_position":"right","orientation":"vertical","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"As part of the field effort, EA flew drones to capture up-to-date aerial imagery to accurately study the Point Hope shoreline. With ArcGIS Pro, the images were stitched together and geographically tied to spatial analysis results. This allowed the team to visualize the degree of change over time by comparing historical imagery to the new drone imagery."},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"

Engineering with Nature<\/h2>\r\nBosche's first site visit was indicative of the challenges that come with living in Point Hope. The journey from Fairbanks, Alaska, where she\u2019s based, involved three flights in a small plane that could carry 12 people at most. There is no road access\u2014just a seven-mile evacuation route to higher ground if needed.\r\n\r\nTo get a more up-to-date understanding of Point Hope\u2019s coastal erosion, the team used the US Geological Survey\u2019s Digital Shoreline Analysis System, an ArcGIS-created tool designed to calculate shoreline or boundary changes over time. Bosche and USACE Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory staff added new satellite imagery as well as archive satellite images to detect a wider range of change. EA also used photogrammetry to calculate the shoreline change by depicting areas of accretion, areas of erosion, and areas that remain unchanged."},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":733692,"image_position":"left","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"Spatial analysis models revealed that steeper slopes on the beach exacerbated the erosion because of how the shoreline reacted to higher waves.\r\n\r\nUltimately, the community and the collaborators decided to focus on two priorities. To help slow coastal erosion, they plan to build a dynamic revetment\u2014a gravel or cobblestone wall that reshapes the beach face with larger rocks\u2014and a strengthened sand dune built over an armored core.\r\n\r\nProgress on the revetment\u2019s design was about 10 percent complete as of mid-2024. To safeguard the subsistence-hunting lifestyle of the I\u00f1upiat, the team members also plan to repair and enhance the traditional underground cold-storage sites. Traditional ecological knowledge informs the careful selection of a si\u0121luaq site based on the size of sediment grains, which determines its success.\r\n\r\n\u201cIndigenous people have been working with nature for thousands of years,\u201d Bosche said. \u201cHaving a safe community that meets your needs is nothing new.\u201d"},{"acf_fc_layout":"sidebar","layout":"standard","image_reference":null,"image_reference_figure":"","spotlight_image":null,"section_title":"","spotlight_name":"","position":"Center","content":"Learn more about how GIS informs climate action strategies for adaptation and mitigation<\/a>.","snippet":""}],"references":null},"yoast_head":"\nNature-Based Solutions Aim to Fortify Point Hope | Winter 2025 | ArcUser<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The community of Point Hope, Alaska, is using GIS to devise nature-based solutions to stem the loss of land through coastal erosion.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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