Mobility in the Changing Arctic: Quantitative Methods to Assess Climate and Socioeconomic Impacts on Arctic Transportation Systems
The Arctic is experiencing rapid climate and socioeconomic change and the need to respond and adapt have been recognized on an international level. Arctic societies rely on complex and often intermodal transportation systems for intercommunity connectivity, access to essential services, food, and supplies, cultural activities, and economic activity. Impacts of climate and socioeconomic drivers on Arctic transportation systems and mobility are heterogenous. Methodologies are needed to quantify these impacts in measures that can be linked with broader socioeconomic systems. We reviewed existing methods and organized them into a conceptual framework to understand trends and gaps in the literature. We found methods quantifying impacts of a range of climate drivers on most transportation modes present in the Arctic, but few methods focused on socioeconomic drivers (Figure 1). Also underrepresented were methods explicitly considering adaptive capacity of transportation systems. This review provides insight into the data and relationships relevant to understanding impacts of Arctic change on transportation systems and how these impacts fit into broader human- Earth systems.