Search

This research investigates the role air transportation plays in remote community resilience by examining air cargo delivery and flight operations in northern Ontario, Canada. Building off of the Disaster Resilience of Place (DROP) model for community resilience, we develop a high-level interdependency model that shows the interdependencies between community infrastructure systems and air transportation in the unique context of remote communities that rely on air transportation. Air transportation is the only mode of travel available year-round for the 26 remote communities studied. Alternative modes are seasonal (e.g., winter roads) and threatened by climate change. Analysing 6 years of cargo data highlights infrastructure interdependencies in energy, the built environment, and transportation systems. Flight operations data and semi-structured interviews with airline employees advance our understanding of air transportation infrastructure and operating challenges that impact flight reliability and ultimately remote community resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The depositional history of the Hudson Bay Lowlands (HBL) in Ontario, Canada has created a low relief, poorly drained landscape, favouring the formation of one of the largest peatland complexes in the world. High volume dewatering associated with resource extraction in this area, such as the De Beers Victor Diamond Mine, tests the ability of the underlying confining layer to limit water losses in the peatlands above. This research quantifies the deepening of water tables and increase in effective stress related to mine dewatering and the resulting changes to bog and fen peatland hydrophysical structure and function. Long-term implications of these impacts are discussed. One impacted and two unimpacted transects were instrumented for meteorological (precipitation and evapotranspiration) and hydrophysical (hydraulic head, hydraulic conductivity (K sat ), and surface elevation) monitoring over a 12-year period in the vicinity of the Victor Mine. Over this study period, the unimpacted peatlands operated within relative hydrological equilibrium, demonstrated through shallow water tables, negligible subsidence, and stable K sat . Contrastingly, all impacted peatlands experienced deeper watertables, larger downwards gradients, and measurable long-term subsidence (4-15 cm). Hydrological impacts were highest in bogs with a thin underlying confining layer even if they were farther from the point of dewatering, highlighting the need for environmental monitoring programs which incorporate an assessment of aquitard thickness. Where subsidence occurred, associated decreases in K sat deflected bog-fen-tributary flow-paths deeper, reducing the upwards transport of solute rich water to downgradient fens. The long-term effects of these landscape scale changes should be studied further, particularly since climate change in this region will potentially increase water deficits and further alter peatland connectivity. Peatland studies should be conducted in different landscapes experiencing water table lowering due to drought or depressurization in order to better understand the associated subsidence patterns and hydrophysical changes in varying geological and morphological regimes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The James Bay region of sub-arctic Ontario, Canada, has seen a significant increase in mean surface-air temperatures and a significant trend towards longer ice-free periods. As polar bears (Ursus maritimus) use sea ice as a hunting platform to hunt ringed seals (Phoca hispida), polar bears have been negatively impacted. If polar bears are unable to achieve a minimum body mass to sustain themselves during the open water period, food-stressed polar bears will interact with First Nation Cree harvesting camps along the coast of James Bay. Historically, encounters between the Cree and polar bears during the spring harvest have been rare, but polar bear encounters are increasing. We generated plausible climate change projections for the region, using General Circulation Models (GCMs) and Regional Climate Models (RCMs), to investigate whether mean surface-air temperatures will continue to increase (and sea ice decrease). All climate models predict an increase in mean surface-air temperature for all seasons, and all time periods. We also found utilizing traditional environmental knowledge and timeseries analyses that human encounters with polar bears have recently become non-random. Thus, there is a need for a real-time informatics tool that can be used collaboratively to store and display geospatial information on polar bears and firsthand observations to decrease encounters with the polar bears and/or increase the readiness of First Nation Cree in case they do encounter a polar bear; this is a proactive response to climate change. The collaborativegeomatics informatics tool was developed at the University of Waterloo; it is unique as the tool is based on the WIDE (Web Informatics Development Environment) toolkit, a declarative application engine that allows for rapid modification of the system. Polar bear sightings can be uploaded onto a satellite imagery map (high-resolution when available), along with any additional data (e.g., textual descriptions, pictures, videos and audio recordings of the encounter). This data will be made available in real-time. Community members will have instant access to the information and will be able to consult the informatics tool prior to heading out onto the land, allowing them to make plans either to avoid areas where polar bears have been observed and/or be prepared for a possible bear encounter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]