Mapping Data before Moving a City
Before moving Malmfälten (the Ore Fields), a major mining district in Sweden, Mistra is commissioning a survey to find out what the world knows about transplanting an Arctic society.
No one knows how big the ore vein is. Nobody knows how to move larger Arctic cities and then maybe having to move them again in perhaps 50 years. Mistra has granted 300,000 SEK to Luleå Technical University so together with Uneå University they can study how much information the world has gathered on this topic. And also to determine what research programs are ongoing within the field and how are they able to cooperate?
“The purpose with the report is to survey the demand for knowledge before launching a full-scale study of moving an Arctic city. Every case of this scope is unique and therefore an important part of learning in a rapidly changing world," says Ola Engelmark, CEO at Mistra.
There are also other forms and examples of moving societies and cities in the world. For instance, it happens in flooded areas. At least on billion people in the world are living under the threat of dangerous flood, according to the UN. New Orleans is a well known example. Every case offers the opportunity to study risks and possibilities from a technical, natural science and social science perspective—in order to prevent problems in the future.
Lulå and Umeå University´s objective will be to map international primary figures, the interdisciplinary level of knowledge and the complex problems of environmental strategy. The report is due June 15, 2009.
