International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

Fig. 3.10-15. The Siku-
Inuit-Hila Project, a
sea ice knowledge
exchange project
between scientists
and Inuit from
Greenland, Nunavut
and Alaska, and a
parter project of the
SIKU initiative (IPY
no. 166), established
community-based
sea ice monitoring
in the communities
of Qaanaaq, Clyde
River, and Barrow.
Here David Iqaqrialu
and Teema Qillaq
(left) check on one
of the Clyde River
sea ice monitoring
stations with visiting
Qaanaarmiut Toku
Oshima and Mamarut
Kristiansen, who use
the same system
to observe sea
ice in their home
community of
Qaanaaq Greenland.
(Photo: Andy Mahoney, 2008)
450
IPY 20 07–20 08
Jiekna (Snow and Ice), SnowChange, CADIS, IPY DIS
and NSIDC.
The goal of ELOKA is to develop a data management
and user support service to facilitate the collection,
preservation, exchange and use of local observations
and knowledge of the Arctic. ELOKA team has not
done community-based monitoring as a part of its IPY
mission, but rather it collaborated with other projects
and communities in need of storing and processing of
their observational data (Fig. 3.10-15). As such, ELOKA
is deeply involved in developing protocols for various
data storage, online and other access engines, and in
standardizing templates for records collected in IPY
projects and beyond. ELOKA is also spearheading an
effort to organize a network of services (‘Data Centres’)
for local and traditional knowledge and communitybased
monitoring in the North. Such efforts require
building new partnerships among various international
organizations, universities, researchers, government
agencies, science projects, and communities engaged
in Local and Traditional Knowledge (LTK) and
community-based monitoring (CBM) research and
data management (Chapter 5.4).
New and improved knowledge. Once the practical
templates for recording, storing and managing data
and information are designed and the initial challenge
of implementing an effective searchable database is
achieved, ELOKA mission enters its second phase.
It involves ensuring that the data stored may be
exchanged between Arctic residents and researchers,
as well as other interested groups such as teachers,
students and decision-makers. The main challenge is
that to ensure the integrity of the data, local providers
retain control over certain sensitive components
of the dataset, as they see it fit or in accordance to
their cultural values and economic needs. None of
those issues have been resolved in the previous datamanagement
efforts involving local communities,
hence ELOKA innovations in interactive web-based
presentations, search tools and electronic and digital
products may be indispensable.
Value for other IPY science fields. The ELOKA
project is still under development and it is currently
in its second post-IPY phase, 2009–2012, thanks to
additional funding provided by the U.S. National
Science Foundation. Its ultimate goal is to provide a