Iqaluit permafrost study to help city planners

A study of Iqaluit's permafrost by scientists from Natural Resources Canada will help the city develop a plan to deal with climate change.

The city's rapid growth is expected to affect the permafrost, so scientists will study its current health and how it has been affected already by development to helpofficials select areas for future development.

"Any infrastructure above the ground will affect the natural conditions," said Anne-Marie LeBlanc, a permafrost scientist with Natural Resources. "When you start to build a road, you change the water drainage, you change the surface conditions, so you change, in time, the property of the permafrost."

The study is part of a larger project, called Atuliqtuq, which will create climate change adaptation plans for seven Nunavut communities, including Iqaluit. Similar work has already been done in Clyde River and Pangnirtung.

Scientists will use ground-penetrating radar to get a picture of the subsurface and drill three-metre-deep holes to collect soil samples for analysis. Work is expected to start in Iqaluit in early August.

Samples will be taken in areas slated for development as well as those already developed, such as the airport.

Atuliqtuq is a co-operative project among Natural Resource's climate change geoscience program; the government of Nunavut, the Canadian Institute of Planners; and Indian and Northern Affairs. The Inuktitut project name translates as "coming into force" in English.

Adaptation action plans will be made for Iqaluit, Clyde River, Hall Beach, Arviat, Whale Cove, Cambridge Bay and Kugluktuk, and the results of that work will be used to develop planning tools for the rest of the territory.