About the project

To get a better understanding about the project, here you can find our research objectives:

  • Integration of local people's knowledge, ideas and concerns about environmental changes and snow, ice and melt water

  • Collaboration with the local community on the research topic 

  • Advancement of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research methods

  • Create a new epistemological understanding of the integration of natural science and social science

  • Provide locally relevant project results to manage future challenges, for example related to climate change

  • Perform analysis of snow property observations to better understand snow-climate interaction

  • Better understand spatial variability of snow changes (assess local affects like inversions and topography)

  • Downscale snow climatology from existing regional climate model runs

  • Better understand important local snow processes by using a physical snow model

 

Research location: This map shows our research area, Tasiilaq and the area of Ammassalik island, the Sermilik research station and weather stations in the surrounding area.

Ammassalik_Island_Map_Website6.jpeg.jpg
 

Current and future activities

Snow2Rain has started with the first phase of the project and is planned to continue until April 2023. The first phase of Snow2Rain involves literature research, initiating contact with the local community of Tasiilaq and an exploration of available data on climate and snow. The literature research also focuses on combining information from natural sciences (snow climatology) and social sciences (anthropology). This website, together with the Facebook-page and Facebook-group can help with initial contact with people from the local community of Tasiilaq. The mentioned exploration of available data on climate and snow involves data from weather stations, regional climate models and snow measuring devices.

The second phase of Snow2Rain involves multiple visits to Tasiilaq by Anna and Jorrit. The fieldwork campaign of Snow2Rain will consist of interviews, communal meetings, workshops, shared common activities of daily life in Tasiilaq and snow measurements. The first fieldwork has a focus on strengthening connections with the local community of Tasiilaq and getting the envisioned collaboration started.

Project partners

Snow2Rain is funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences. Information about all project partners can be found here.