1. Creating an Index of Arctic Urban Sustainability Robert Orttung George Washington University

2. Index of Arctic Urban Sustainability Big new project – All of the Arctic – Other areas Define urban sustainability – Arctic environment fragile Develop a comprehensive index to measure it

3. Uses of an Index Tools to measure progress, Identify areas of most urgent needs, Select best practices, Examine opportunity costs, and Determine where external actors can have the greatest impact

4. Key Issues Climate change Resource development Migration flow

5. Types of Measures Policy measures Outcome measures We don’t have enough data now to determine how specific policies affect outcomes

6. Measures Outcome – Economic – Social – Environmental Policy – Political institutions – Planning mechanisms

7. Index of Arctic Urban Sustainability Sustainability Component MeasuresIndex (1-500) EconomicAccess/remoteness (1-20), population’s well-being (1-20), infrastructure vulnerability (1-20), intellectual capital (1- 20), availability of labor (1-20) 1-100 SocialState of public services (1-50), criminality (1-25), Diversity (1-25) 1-100 EnvironmentalClimate and environmental change impacts on urban centers (1-50), Impacts of urban centers on natural systems (1-50) 1-100 Political Capacity Representation (1-20), Budgeting (1-20), institutions (1- 20), state-society relations (1-20), urban history (1-20) 1-100 Ability to PlanHousehold capital (1-25), human capital (1-25), Planning (1-50) 1-100

8. Economic Measures Citizens can find work Corporations can operate effectively Components – Level of access or remoteness of the city, particularly its connection to transportation infrastructure. – Well-being of the population, particularly the level of income for residents, unemployment rates, the potential for layoffs in factories, and level of state subsidies required to keep local factories operating. – Infrastructure vulnerability, measured in terms of the possibility of collapse as a result of permafrost thawing. – Measure examines intellectual capital, defined in terms of the presence of local institutions of higher learning and training facilities. – Availability of labor. Currently, government statistical agencies provide this kind of data, but do not usually do so in a manner that facilitates measuring sustainability.

9. Outputs of Project Multi-national, multi-disciplinary research network Research Education Policy Improvement