Alaska seeing impact of climate change in its infrastructure, villages – ‘Many years ago this would have been unheard of’

By Molly Rettig, Fairbanks Daily News Miner
Jan 30, 2011 FAIRBANKS — Climate change has already begun to make life difficult for state transportation managers. And they expect it to become a bigger and more expensive challenge if warming trends continue as predicted. “With over 6,600 miles of coastline and 80 percent of the state underlaid by ice-rich permafrost, you can certainly imagine we are at the forefront of climate change impacts,” said Mike Coffey, maintenance and operations chief for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Coffey discussed the impact of climate change on transportation in a webinar last week, hosted by the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. New challenges include warming permafrost, coastal erosion and the potential for more dramatic storms and flooding, he said. These could lead to more highways and facilities cracking, icing up or even washing away. The hardest-hit areas are northern, western and Interior Alaska, where roads and structures are built over permafrost and near the coast. Climate data show Alaska has warmed in the past century and is likely to continue warming. Some regions and seasons will experience more warming than others, according to UAF climate research. The research, by Scenarios Network for Alaska Planning, projects average monthly temperatures for different communities using international climate models and predicted greenhouse gas levels. In Fairbanks, for example, the average January temperature climbed approximately three degrees from the late 1990s to this past decade. It’s projected to go up about two more degrees in the next two to three decades. Climate change looks more dramatic in a place like Newtok, a Yupik village on the west coast of Alaska. Average January temperatures rose about six degrees from the 1960s to last decade. They are projected to climb another two to three degrees by 1940 and approximately five additional degrees by 2060. Melting permafrost is the biggest challenge for roads and infrastructure, Coffey said. … “We’re expecting those to get worse and expand farther across the state,” he said. In Fairbanks, fall traditionally turns to winter quickly and temperatures typically remain below the freezing mark until April. But lately, the transition has lasted longer. “We get snow, and it warms up,” Coffey said. Irregular warm spells during early winter cause events like the freezing rain storm in November that blanketed Fairbanks in ice. These events force planners to manage roads differently. “One thing we’re implementing next winter in Fairbanks is an anti-icing program,” Coffey said. “That’s something that has never had to happen in the Interior before.” Warmer falls also have delayed sea ice formation along coastlines. Without sea ice protection, waves hammer the shoreline during storms. “Even without increased storm intensity, just with normal weather patterns, if you lose sea-fast ice you get massive coastal erosion,” Fresco said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified 180 communities in Alaska threatened by erosion, Coffey said. Newtok, the Yupik village on the west coast of Alaska, is “basically being eaten away by erosion of the shoreline,” Coffey said. Its dump site and barge landing have already eroded away, and houses are next. Shishmaref, located on an island in the Chukchi Sea, lost 125 feet of beach in a single storm in 1997, he said. “Many years ago this would have been unheard of,” he said. …

Alaska seeing impact of climate change in its infrastructure, villages via Apocadocs