Expansion of a Drone Community of Practice in the Bering Strait Region in Support of DHS Operations

This project will develop a sustainable drone community of practice (DCoP) in the Bering Strait region. Residents of the area will use American-made drones to provide community assessments and supply situational awareness before, during, and after a disaster response. The research team will transition the workforce development program to regional Homeland Security partners, ensuring longevity and expanding crucial situational awareness for response operations in western Alaska.

Reliable Arctic Power & Intelligent Energy Resilience

RAPIER: Addresses gaps in the current state of renewable and green energy and applicability to the harsh Arctic environment. There are multiple renewable energy sources with different levels of maturity that will be evaluated for operation in the Arctic region and specific case-study locales. [RAPS] Reviews local resources in remote Arctic areas and maps appropriate renewable technology to available resources. [IRON] Provides methodological framework and computational tools to identify which technologies are applicable in that environment and how they can operate optimally with regards to set mission objectives and metrics.

Investing in Future HSE Professionals: ADAC-ARCTIC Fellows Program

The program engages student interns with DHS Center of Excellence projects, providing technical and professional development during the school year and 10-week internships during the summer. The fellowship is open to undergraduate and graduate students. Selected fellows meet GPA requirements, are US citizens enrolled in STEM, and commit to employment with Homeland Security Enterprises or related agencies after graduation.

Integrated Arctic Education

This project provides scholarship and professional development opportunities to undergraduate, graduate, and professionals. The research team aims to develop a highly skilled federal workforce capable of advancing Arctic initiatives by providing diverse educational pathways to a broad array of students. The project aims to build the next generation of Arctic leaders, researchers and scientists.

Arctic Foundations: Building the Workforce of the Future

This project will build industry awareness to attract, develop, and retain a workforce that meets or exceeds the current and future needs of the DHS in the Arctic. The research team and its education partners will provide pathways for students and professionals to gain non-traditional education experiences in Alaska on a variety of projects and pursue Registered Apprenticeship programs authorized by the US Department of Labor.

Enabling Resilience in the Arctic

This project leverages the millimeterlevel accuracy of InSAR surveys and digital twin modeling to identify high-risk areas for land subsidence, ground motion, and slope instability. These findings will then be integrated with local knowledge and stakeholder input to develop actionable strategies for community adaptation and infrastructure risk mitigation planning.

Alaska Railbelt Critical Assets Project, Port of Alaska

Critical infrastructure in Alaska consists of essential physical structures and networks that are fundamental to the well-being and economic prosperity of the state. It would severely undermine the state’s economic stability should this infrastructure become damaged, risking the health and safety to citizens. This project will evaluate the Alaskan Railbelt region, including the essential hub at the Port of Alaska, the 700-mile-long electric transmission corridor, and the Kenai Peninsula. These regions represent a significant section of Alaska’s critical infrastructure, which supports nearly 75% of the state’s population, 39.8% of which live in disadvantaged communities or Alaska Native villages. The team will also explore options to strengthen the robustness of this essential infrastructure against natural disasters and erosion, thereby improving the reliability and protection of Alaska’s supply chain in this transportation corridor stretching from Anchorage, to Fairbanks, and down to Valdez.

Create an Arctic Research Testbed Portal

The goal of this project is to create an ArcGIS Hub or Enterprise Site that serves as a centralized portal for Arctic researchers conducting testbed research projects in Alaska. This hub site will facilitate access to geospatial data, support research collaboration, and provide the necessary tools to manage and track progress of testbed projects in rural and remote areas of Alaska. This statement of work outlines the requirements, deliverables, and expectations for the creation of an ArcGIS Hub or Enterprise Site.

SAFE - Arctic

Environmental, social, and geopolitical challenges overlap in the North, making the Arctic as complex as it is vulnerable. Environmental changes like permafrost thaw and coastal erosion are threatening essential infrastructure; newly available shipping lanes are amplifying the competition for newly accessible minerals; and long-standing limits in transportation and communication remain a challenge in this remote region. Throw in a disaster – whether environmental, economic, or adversary-driven – and the region’s vulnerabilities become even more pronounced. This project aims to increase training and collaboration so that, in the event of a disaster, regional stakeholders can act fast and prevent a disaster from cascading across the region. Preparedness is essential to safeguard the Arctic’s communities, infrastructure, and subsistence ways of life.

Arctic Foresight

ADAC-ARCTIC and the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) contracted with Houston Foresight to conduct a strategic foresight project. This was to explore the confluence of science and technology advancements relevant to the future of the Arctic region and to proactively look ahead of developing opportunities and vulnerabilities. There are two principal ways that the combination of strategic foresight and strategic planning can be very effective. First, it gives the planning team an enhanced mental model of potential future possibilities, and thus future context becomes less of a mystery and more tangible. The project planning team reviews and digests insights about the future that were derived from horizon scanning, hundreds of trends, issues, plans, and projections, as well as from interviews with key stakeholders. Understanding the changes suggested by the scenarios enables the team to act, develop, and implement resilient research and development strategies. In addition to providing an enhanced mental model of the future, foresight work also helps sift through a wide range of potential strategic questions and identify a starting point for planning efforts. The team collectively identifies options that translate well into potential research pathways and questions to be posed to researchers interested in working with ADAC-ARCTIC in an annual Request for Proposals. This work also develops a set of future-oriented research criteria to be used in evaluating research project ideas, to help ADAC-ARCTIC continue to align its research program with the future.