{"id":7266,"date":"2022-03-15T18:39:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-15T23:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\/?p=7266"},"modified":"2025-03-06T11:51:09","modified_gmt":"2025-03-06T17:51:09","slug":"improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\/","title":{"rendered":"Improving Coastal Resilience in One of North America\u2019s Oldest Inhabited Settlements, Point Hope, Alaska"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Paula Whitfield & Leanne Poussard, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sod House constructed from whale bones, wood, and sod insulation located within the former village site near the north shore of the Point Hope spit. Cultural sites such as this are located all along the rapidly eroding north shore. Photo taken by Dan Savercool, EA on 22 July 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Jutting into the heart of the Chukchi Sea, 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the northwest coast of Alaska, is a gravel spit that is the site of one of the longest continuously inhabited village in the Americas. Twenty-five hundred years ago, the native I\u00f1upiat (singular: I\u00f1upiaq) settled here and founded the community of Point Hope, home to approximately 700 people. It is one of eight villages within the North Slope Borough. Today, annual erosion rates greater than three feet per year in some areas, thawing permafrost, and sea-level rise are threatening Point Hope\u2019s unique cultural heritage, the community\u2019s ice cellars (Siglauqs), and the only road in and out of the town. These threats also extend to bird nesting habitat on Point Hope that is used by 120 species. These threats, coupled with communications, transportation, and logistics challenges, add to the vulnerability and isolation of this Arctic community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While many Native Alaskan villages are facing natural hazards, forcing their immediate retreat, the community of Point Hope relocated away from the immediate coast during the mid-1970s. This retreat has given Point Hope additional time to plan and develop options to help the community adapt to ongoing impacts. Both Darrin Lawless, Senior Program Manager with Agviq Environmental Services, LLC (AES), a subsidiary of Tikigaq Corporation (an Alaska Native Village Corporation), and Sam Whitin, Coastal Resilience Director with EA Engineering, Science, and Technology, Inc., PBC saw this as an opportunity. As partners under the U.S. Small Business Administration\u2019s Mentor-Prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Program, they teamed up, along with the City of Point Hope, to procure a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) grant to help Point Hope develop nature-based alternatives to address ongoing infrastructure resilience challenges. Nature-based solutions (NBS) with and without conventional gray infrastructure have helped communities in temperate regions reduce risks from coastal erosion and adapt. However, remote cold regions are especially challenging, and most natural approaches used in temperate regions are not applicable in such harsh environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Members of the field team (Darrin Lawless from AES, Taber Midgley and Christopher Small from EA) deploying the wave and water-temperature buoy in the Chukchi Sea. Photo taken by Taber Midgley on a mounted GoPro 22, July 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

According to western-style science and engineering knowledge sources, Point Hope is the first known Native Alaskan community to specifically explore the use of NBS to create more resilience. Native Alaskan communities have long used nature-based approaches to address other challenges; and as such, the use of traditional ecological knowledge from the local community is a cornerstone in developing project alternatives. \u201cThe community, and elders in particular, have so much valuable insight to offer,\u201d said Whitin. \u201cTheir historical knowledge is informing our collaborative approach to characterizing the system and considering possible NbS strategies.\u201d  The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Engineering With Nature\u00ae<\/sub> (EWN\u00ae<\/sub>) program is also leveraging additional research to collect the baseline data needed to inform models and to advance research in cold regions where information is very limited or in some cases nonexistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Since traditional western-style nature-based solutions may not work in cold regions, we need to come up with strategies for what will work in this area.<\/em><\/p>\nNick Cohn, ERDC<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Cold regions are some of the most dynamic on the planet, experiencing intense winter storms, high winds, and rapid changes such as the loss of winter sea ice due to rising temperatures. This makes them among the most challenging environments to employ NBS. These harsh conditions limit the substrate and vegetation options. For example, vegetation options include only a few slow-growing plant species, and substrate is primarily limited to larger grain sizes, such as gravel, cobble, or rock. In addition, these remote locations can hinder both the availability and the transportation of materials. Because there are no roads into Point Hope from other villages and population centers, you must take an airplane, a boat, a snowmobile, or a dog team to access the village. The nearest village, Kivalina, is more than 100 miles away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe kind of designs we need to look at for cold regions are different compared to the Lower 48. It requires completely different approaches from what we typically think of as natural and nature-based features like wetlands, islands, mangroves, and reefs,\u201d explains Jeff King, Deputy Lead of the EWN program. \u201cWe take more of a hybrid approach, usually including more hard substrate and less dependence on vegetation than in temperate areas.\u201d To address these challenges, EWN has brought in additional researchers from the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and Coastal Hydraulics Laboratory\u2019s Field Research Facility (FRF) to lead hydrodynamic and ice-cellar research that will support the development of strategies for employing NBS in cold regions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Point Hope has significant challenges that are unique even for Alaska. Situated on a gravel spit in a dynamic high-energy environment, the town experiences winter storms and the full brunt of waves traveling across the Arctic Ocean. \u201cThe northwestern coast [of Alaska] has been frozen for thousands of years and is now thawing. Point Hope has not experienced these types of changes in recent human history, and things are changing rapidly. It\u2019s pretty urgent for some of these villages,\u201d said Taber Midgley, Point Hope Project Manager with EA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, thawing permafrost and loss of shorefast ice serves to increase the impacts from more-frequent and longer-duration winter storm events. \u201cLess shorefast ice means that storms are having a greater impact in coastal systems and causing overtopping of the beach and tundra, increasing the rate of erosion and even getting seawater in their water supply,\u201d said Nick Cohn, Research Oceanographer at ERDC\u2019s FRF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These hazards also increase the vulnerability and isolation of the remote community by interrupting communications and supplies and hindering logistics, administrative tasks, and planning. \u201cShipping things is difficult\u2014it has to be on a barge in August. If you miss it, you have to wait a year, unless you fly it in,\u201d said Tom Douglas, Senior Scientist Technical Manager with ERDC-CRREL. \u201cSome things don\u2019t fit on airplanes; throw COVID into the mix, and it makes logistics even harder.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Survey base station and rover, held by Sean Burkholder, setup on the sole National Geodetic Survey benchmark near Point Hope. The real time kinematic (RTK) global navigation satellite system (GNSS) equipment is required to accurately survey locations and elevations of critical features and to ground truth drone and satellite imagery. Photo taken by Christopher Small, EA on 19 July 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The absence of baseline information such as hydrodynamic, tide, and water-level data is another challenge to working in this region.\u00a0 \u201cIn the Lower 48 states, it is relatively easy to get accurate tidal datums, tidal gauge records, lidar topography, or bathymetry for a site. But here we are almost starting from scratch,\u201d explained Whitin. \u201cFor example, the limited tidal-range data that does exist has not been updated since the early 2000s and does not take into account changes in sea level.\u201d In addition, most instruments and sensors are designed and field tested in temperate regions and can fail under the extreme seasonality and harsh conditions. \u201cDuring nearly half the year, it is dark, cold, and windy. The ground is frozen. Sensors break, and batteries freeze,\u201d said Cohn.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enhancing Project Value<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Point Hope elder Henry Koonook showing the field team his active ice cellar (traditional Siglauq), which is accessed through the vertical shaft over the top of the subterranean structure. The Field Team installed dual channel temperature sensors in four ice cellars at Point Hope to collect data that can inform impacts to the community. Photo taken by Katie Dunn, UPenn on 22 July 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The goal of this project is to come up with feasible solutions that will help delay or prevent villages from being moved away from the coast. This is the main goal.<\/em><\/p>\nSam Whitin, EA<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Advancing use of NBS in Point Hope is an opportunity for the project partners to work with the community to help them address their most pressing issues related to ongoing erosion, flooding, thawing ice cellars, and loss of cultural resources while incorporating traditional ecological knowledge into project designs and alternatives and advancing research and development of nature-based resilience strategies in cold regions. \u201cThis is an opportunity to advance nature-based solutions in a region where it has not been tried before using western-style science and engineering,\u201d notes Douglas. \u201cWe will be collecting the baseline data to better understand the system and to come up with the appropriate interventions to test.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cornerstone of this project is the gathering and use of traditional ecological knowledge, also known as indigenous knowledge, which incorporates information and data related to the ecosystem from direct first-person experience. This project also represents an opportunity to archive traditional ecological knowledge and to inform the planning and design of nature-based alternatives in cold regions. \u201cThe community is part of the design process. Their ideas and observations go into the design. There\u2019s no way you could do this project without engaging the community in this manner. Here, involving the community involves them in the process,\u201d explains Melissa Becker, EA\u2019s Senior Scientist and Manager of the Point Hope community outreach component. The importance of utilizing context-specific local knowledge and intergenerational transmission of knowledge, skills, and strategies from the Point Hope community cannot be overlooked and requires respect and care on the part of scientists and researchers who work with the community members. \u201cIt takes time to earn trust, and it is impossible to do over email and phone calls. We had to be there and talk to people, and we want to do more,\u201d says Becker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This project also represents an important opportunity to combine cold regions research and landscape architecture. Leveraging an existing EWN relationship created a unique opportunity to bring a team of landscape architects into the EWN cold regions working group. Sean Burkholder, Landscape Architect at the University of Pennsylvania, and Rob Holmes, Landscape Architect at Auburn University\u2014both members of the Dredge Research Collaborative (DRC)\u2014have partnered with EWN for years. \u201cRob and Sean, together with other members of the DRC, have really helped to advance the design of innovative NBS,\u201d explains King. \u201cTheir perspectives concerning the dynamics of complex systems and options for integrating a variety of interventions is invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Multiple skill sets and expertise are required to advance EWN practice in such harsh environments.  Moreover, advancing nature-based solutions in cold regions requires an understanding of the physical processes impacting the site. \u201cUnderstanding the baseline conditions\u2014the forces acting on the landscape and how it is responding\u2014are essential to generating nature-based approaches or natural interventions,\u201d explains Burkholder. To address these data needs, the project team of engineers, landscape architects, program managers, ecological restoration practitioners, and community outreach specialists will integrate traditional ecological knowledge with baseline data collections, modeling outputs, and landscape architecture to inform development of project alternatives that address the threats to the road, cultural sites, and ice cellars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Summer Field Work and Research<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In July 2021 project partners EA, AES, and Members of the DRC and their graduate students conducted baseline mapping of the site using drones. They focused on the critical areas of erosion, such as the road, cultural sites, beaches, and thawing ice cellars. Accurate depictions of the topography combined with the true color imagery will be used to develop architectural renderings, also known as visualizations. The model surfaces will allow the researchers to detect how the landscape is changing over time. \u201cAs landscape architects, we help to bridge the understanding between the engineering and the complex cultural and ecological context of the larger landscape,\u201d notes Burkholder. \u201cThe types of visualizations we produce are able to convey aspects of the landscape in effective ways, and are especially helpful in communicating the intricacies of natural processes to people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Taber Midgley and Chris Small (EA) installing pressure transducers to collect water-level fluctuations on the shore of the Chukchi Sea near Point Hope\u2019s historic and cultural sites threatened by erosion. Photo taken by Dan Savercool, EA on 22 July 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The project team also deployed instruments to collect baseline data on the waves, water level, and water temperature at the site to understand coastal erosional dynamics and interactions with thawing permafrost. Nick Cohn, with ERDC FRF, will use this data to adapt existing coastal erosion models to the Point Hope environment and to better understand the coupling between the rapidly retreating beach system and the adjacent permafrost landscape. \u201cMost existing models are parameterized to sandy environments and are not for the types of vegetation or substrate that are found in cold regions,\u201d notes Cohn. He will also use the data to estimate overtopping fluxes for the project alternatives to ensure the structures are likely to reduce future flooding impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tom Douglas, with CRREL, is using on-the-ground data collections in addition to satellite and drone imagery to investigate ice cellar permafrost dynamics to inform the placement or relocation of ice cellars for the local community. \u201cStudying ice cellars is new. Some of them are thousands of years old, and they are dug down below the permafrost. They are literally freezers in the ground\u2014it is how they can live in a harsh place and store their meat,\u201d said Douglas. \u201cBut, the thawing permafrost is causing the roofs to collapse and water to seep in.\u201d In 2021, volunteers from the local community deployed a series of thermistors (index-card-size automated temperature data loggers) in the ice cellars. Permafrost temperature combined with elevations will allow Douglas to measure the amount of thaw that occurs. \u201cAs permafrost thaws, the active [seasonally thawed] layer expands downward as you go from ice to water, causing the ground surface to subside,\u201d he said. \u201cThese measurements will be used to create temperature and elevation cross sections that will help the community decide whether to protect or relocate ice cellars.\u201d The data will be downloaded and analyzed in summer 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Douglas and his colleague Lauren Bosche, an ORISE Research Participant at CRREL, are using high-resolution satellite imagery to approximate shoreline change rates to better understand the erosional impact of storms and trends in historical shoreline change on the northern side of the peninsula. Initial results indicate that there has been an average of over three feet of erosion per year since 1950, though the rate of change across the coastline varies considerably. Knowing the direction, extent, and timing of the shoreline change rate, such as whether shoreline change is driven by episodic storm events or sea level rise, allows the team to estimate how much the coastline will change in the future. \u201cIf we can project the locations and rates of coastal retreat, we could give them a timeframe for when they [the City of Point Hope] should move; that would be helpful,\u201d said Douglas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aerial imagery of the Point Hope community and the gravel spit with the Marryat Inlet on the left and the Chukchi Sea on the right. Photo taken by Sean Burkholder, UPenn, on 22 July 2021 from a drone.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

AES and EA conducted interviews in July 2021 with Point Hope residents to integrate traditional ecological knowledge into the development of the project design alternatives. Darrin Lawless, AES, acts as the liaison between the residents, the city of Point Hope, and the project team, along with his other project and grant management roles on the project. \u201cWe were happy to see scientists come into the village and participate and be well-received. It\u2019s not a numbers game. It\u2019s not about how many people are at these meetings; it\u2019s who<\/em> is at the meetings,\u201d said Lawless. \u201cWhen we see prominent elders walk in, we\u2019re happy because we know that we just have to get them the right information in order to inform the design process.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next Steps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Photo taken from Beacon Hill, showing tundra in the foreground with the Community of Point Hope in the distance. Photo taken by Taber Midgley EA on 20 July 2021.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The visualizations developed by the landscape architects will be presented to the City of Point Hope in early 2022 as a series of project design alternatives for review and prioritization. While there currently is no money for construction, the project team believes there is a high likelihood of winning additional grant opportunities to continue design, permitting, and construction for some of these projects. \u201cThe primary goal is to get the community to look at possibilities and try to identify a project\u2014or several projects\u2014that can actually be completed,\u201d said Lawless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project team also plans to collect more baseline data in 2022 and to continue to engage with the local community to learn more about their best practices for maintaining their ice cellars. Taber Midgely emphasized, \u201cWe have a better understanding now of data needs and how to do things a little better. We also have relationships with community members now. We want to get up there and get more data to inform these designs and future work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo taken on south shore near the community of Point Hope, showing the sea ice\u2013land interface at time of year where the sun remains low in the horizon for the majority of the day. Photo taken by Sam Whitin, EA on 20 February 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Point Hope project may be a springboard for other cold regions. . . . All of the approaches are transferable.<\/em><\/p>\nNick Cohn, ERDC FRF<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Overall the project team hopes to improve resilience and promote mitigation efforts with long-lasting benefits for the community, while also obtaining a repository of information on successes and failures that projects in similar regions can reference. For example, guidance and lessons learned from Point Hope will be transferable to other regions within Alaska, as well as cold regions within Canada, New England, and the Great Lakes. As Whitin explains \u201cWe are hoping that we can promote these ideas so these practices will be adopted more broadly in cold regions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Culturally important bowhead whale jawbone framing the winter sun sitting low in the horizon. Photo taken by Sam Whitin, EA on 21 February 2020.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

References\/Links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Tikigaq: Resilience in Point Hope<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Engineering With Nature + Landscape Architecture Tikigaq \/ Point Hope<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

EWN in Cold Regions<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Paula Whitfield & Leanne Poussard, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Background Jutting into the heart of the Chukchi Sea, 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the northwest coast of Alaska, is a gravel spit that is the site of one of the longest continuously inhabited village in the Americas. Twenty-five […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":7235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7266","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nImproving Coastal Resilience in One of North America\u2019s Oldest Inhabited Settlements, Point Hope, Alaska - Engineering With Nature<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Improving Coastal Resilience in One of North America\u2019s Oldest Inhabited Settlements, Point Hope, Alaska - Engineering With Nature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Paula Whitfield & Leanne Poussard, NOAA National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Background Jutting into the heart of the Chukchi Sea, 125 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the northwest coast of Alaska, is a gravel spit that is the site of one of the longest continuously inhabited village in the Americas. Twenty-five […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Engineering With Nature\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-03-15T23:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-03-06T17:51:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/8_SouthshorenearPointHopeshowingseaice-landinterface_2020-02-20_WhitinSam.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"902\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Audrey Strelzoff\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Audrey Strelzoff\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"15 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Audrey Strelzoff\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ce1c41a18deac1d7ef398ae1b2a3ea9f\"},\"headline\":\"Improving Coastal Resilience in One of North America\u2019s Oldest Inhabited Settlements, Point Hope, Alaska\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-03-15T23:39:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-03-06T17:51:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":3093,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/03\\\/8_SouthshorenearPointHopeshowingseaice-landinterface_2020-02-20_WhitinSam.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/ewn.erdc.dren.mil\\\/improving-coastal-resilience-in-one-of-north-americas-oldest-inhabited-settlements-point-hope-alaska\\\/\",\"name\":\"Improving Coastal Resilience in One of North America\u2019s Oldest Inhabited Settlements, Point Hope, Alaska - 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