Alaska far case study challenges, opportunities, resilience , mitigation and adaptation.

Question 1

Opportunities for economic development in Alaska:

Answer 1

1) Oil and Gas: over half of Alaska’s income comes from oil and gas. Still are many oil reserves which are untapped, which is why the Trans-Alaska oil pipe was built.

2) Mineral resources: Tintina gold belt including gold, silver and iron ore etc.
Tintina belt contributed $2.2 billion to Alaska’s GDP in 2013.

3) Fishing - Employs 79,000 people and contributes over $5bn dollars to Alaska’s economy.

4) Tourism - 2 million tourists visit each year bringing money and creating chances for employment.

Question 2

Challenges to development within Alaska:

Answer 2

1) Environmental conditions - really cold some places have an annual temp of -9 degrees celcius, increases risk to injury. Really dark in the North in the winter making work difficult.

2) Inaccessibility - Mountainous terrain makes access difficult and expensive. Some oil reserves are very remote making it difficult and expensive to transport oil out. Limits employment opportunities.

3) Difficulty of building infrastructure - construction work only takes place in summer, long time and expensive to get materials and the permafrost provides a solid base to build on but if this melts then pipelines may fracture as the ground become unstable.

Question 3

Humans have responded to cold conditions in 3 ways:

Answer 3

1) Resilience
2) Mitigation.
3) Adaptation

Question 3

Resilience within Alaska …

Answer 3

Resilience = being able to cope with the challenges the environment presents.

2 examples:

1) Alaskan government has emergency food supplies to feed 40,000 for 7 days in the event of a natural disaster cutting off potential supplies.

2) Electricity companies have emergency generators that can be started if power fails.

Question 4

Mitigation within Alaska …

Answer 4

Mitigation = reducing the severity of challenges.

1) Utilities e.g water, are built in Utilidors which are above ground insulated corridors which avoids digging into permafrost and avoids melting.

2) Buildings are constructed on stilts to prevents them from thawing the permafrost below. Same with Trans-Alaskan pipeline aswell - can be expensive.

Question 5

Adaptation within Alaska …

Answer 5

Adaptation = adjusting behaviour to cope with the environment.

1) Working practices are adapted to weather, workers may take breaks to avoid frostbite and hypothermia. May not be economically viable for some countries.

2) Many vehicles continuously run their engines through winter otherwise they would struggle to start.