August 20, 2015 Katia Kontar, MS - Reducing Spring Flood Impacts for Wellbeing of Communities of the North PhD Student, International Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska Fairbanks

Reducing Spring Flood Impacts for Wellbeing of Communities of the North

Katia Kontar MS, PhD Student
International Arctic Research Center (IARC), University of Alaska Fairbanks

In the Far North, spring is known as a flood season. Spring sunshine can bring rapid warming that forces river ice to break up quickly and pile up in tremendous jams at narrow and curved points of the streams, flooding nearby settlements. In May 2013, a series of massive ice jams caused severe flooding along the Yukon River in Alaska and the Lena River in Sakha Republic (Yakutia), Russia. Although the floods did not result in fatalities, both regions have suffered significant socioeconomic consequences. The most severe flood in Alaska took place in the remote village of Galena. Within two days, the floodwaters and ice debris destroyed nearly 90 percent of Galena's infrastructure and forced over half of its residents into long-term evacuation. The village of Edeytsy was one of the most severely flooded in Yakutia. Similarly to Galena, the majority of Edeytsy's infrastructure was inundated by the floodwaters within two days. Over two years later the rebuilding efforts continue in both villages. In this presentation, I will introduce a new bilateral project, which uses the flood sites of Galena and Edeytsy as case studies. The project will foster socioeconomic wellbeing in the US and Russian communities of the North through the development of effective and easily adaptable flood risk mitigation, and disaster response and recovery strategies.