Large investments are currently made to improve mapping, monitoring, observing and surveying capabilities in the Arctic Ocean. These new technological infrastructures widen the range of available information about weather and sea-ice conditions in the Arctic. This provides a basis for the growth of informed economic activities, thus stretching the boundaries of the accessible Arctic. The information systems thereby seem to play a double role. While making the Arctic more controllable and predictable, they also enlarge the potential risks and hazards associated with increasing activity. The main objective of this project is to analyze the development of weather and sea ice information systems in the Arctic and how they affect economic decision-making.
The project has the following sub-objectives, which are linked to three thematic work packages.
(1) To investigate the development of Arctic information systems as socio-technical infrastructures;
(2) To understand the complexities and challenges in the user-producer interface in Arctic information systems;
(3) To explore how Arctic information systems affect economic decision-making and alters the Arctic as a zone of risk.