NSF Abstract

This project models the movement of the Qanirtuuq (Kanektok River), a braided river system in the Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta. The Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta is among the world's largest deltaic ecosystems, and the homeland of the Yup'ik, Alaska's largest Native community. The Alaska Native Yup'ik (pl. Yupiit) village of Quinhagak is located at the mouth of the Qanirtuuq, which allows villagers to harvest salmon, hunt moose and sea mammals, and gather salmonberries. As with other areas of the Arctic, the Yukon-Kuskokwin Delta is experiencing unprecedented levels of warming air and water temperatures. Permafrost is melting and the sea ice protecting the coast is receding, impacting Quinhagaks' ability to feed their families. These changes may accentuate avulsions, that is, sudden changes in the river's course that form new channels drawing flow away from current waterways. Avulsions can cause overbank flow into the floodplain and may ultimately result in the forced relocation of Quinhagak.

 

This project initiates a collaboration between researchers and the Quinhagak community whose aim is to co-develop a database that can track the river's movement, erosion, and subsistence ecosystem, using scientific data and traditional ecological knowledge from the Yup'ik people. The project draws from fluvial geomorphology, remote sensing, traditional ecological knowledge, salmon ecology, and isotopic analysis to monitor environmental and ecological factors critical to understanding riverine ecosystem stability and how these factors will affect the stability of the local salmon population, flooding, and Quinhagak resilience. The team is searching for incipient avulsions, estimating channel bed elevation, determining floodplain inundation, and measuring erosion severity, and coordinating with Alaskan Native land management offices. This planning phase includes establishing community-researcher relationships, finalizing data collection methods, and planning outreach activities. It allows the community to make informed decisions about relocation and serves as a scalable, sustainable approach for other rural Alaskan communities.

This project is in response to the Civic Innovation Challenge program's Track A. Climate and Environmental Instability - Building Resilient Communities through Co-Design, Adaption, and Mitigation and is a collaboration between NSF, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Department of Energy.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Award Abstract #2431456