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Abstract
Arctic observing and data systems have been widely recognized as critical infrastructures to support decision making and understanding across sectors in the Arctic and globally. Yet due to broad and persistent issues related to coordination, deployment infrastructure and technology gaps, the Arctic remains among the most poorly observed regions on the planet from the standpoint of conventional observing systems. Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) was initiated in 2011 to address the persistent shortcomings in the coordination of Arctic observations that are maintained by its many national and organizational partners. SAON set forth a bold vision in its 2018 – 28 strategic plan to develop a roadmap for Arctic observing and data systems (ROADS) to specifically address a key gap in coordination efforts—the current lack of a systematic planning mechanism to develop and link observing and data system requirements and implementation strategies in the Arctic region. This coordination gap has hampered partnership development and investments toward improved observing and data systems. ROADS seeks to address this shortcoming through generating a systems-level view of observing requirements and implementation strategies across SAON’s many partners through its roadmap. A critical success factor for ROADS is equitable participation of Arctic Indigenous Peoples in the design and development process, starting at the process design stage to build needed equity. ROADS is both a comprehensive concept, building from a societal benefit assessment approach, and one that can proceed step-wise so that the most imperative Arctic observations—here described as shared Arctic variables (SAVs)—can be rapidly improved. SAVs will be identified through rigorous assessment at the beginning of the ROADS process, with an emphasis in that assessment on increasing shared benefit of proposed system improvements across a range of partnerships from local to global scales. The success of the ROADS process will ultimately be measured by the realization of concrete investments in and well-structured partnerships for the improved sustainment of Arctic observing and data systems in support of societal benefit.
Highlights
The initiation of the international Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) was motivated by the collective challenges associated with coordinating, improving, integrating and sustaining pan-Arctic observations in the face of rapid environmental and social change
SAON is a joint initiative of the Arctic Council and the International Arctic Science Committee (IASC), both of which recognized that the complex organizational dimensions of Arctic observing activities called for a body like SAON to serve as a regional facilitator toward shared goals (AC, 2011)
As part of its strategic plan, SAON identified the need for a Roadmap for Arctic Observing and Data Systems (ROADS) to set a course towards systematically defining the needed observing and data systems and to specify how the various partners and players are going to collectively work towards achieving that system
Summary
The initiation of the international Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) was motivated by the collective challenges associated with coordinating, improving, integrating and sustaining pan-Arctic observations in the face of rapid environmental and social change. SAON has been called upon to engage more directly in developing planning approaches for the needed observing networks and data systems (AOS, 2016; ASM2, 2018; ASM3, 2021) Such an ambitious undertaking requires a clear outline of the specific challenges and objectives that such planning entails, which begins within the context of widespread changes witnessed in the Arctic. Most local and Indigenous knowledge systems are empirically tested, applied, contested, and validated through different means in different contexts (Hill et al, 2020; Eicken et al, 2021) These specific guiding principles in SAON’s strategic plan aim to support equity in addition to rigor, as fragmented science efforts that do not engage these principles can lead to false conclusions (e.g., WardFear et al, 2019; Raymond et al, 2020).
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