The multi-disciplinary Arctic Resilience CoLab within the Environmental Research Institute at UVA leverages existing
expertise and ongoing Arctic projects from across several Schools and Departments throughout the University, in order
to develop a premier interdisciplinary Arctic research program. The overall objective of this CoLab is to improve
our understanding of the coupled human and natural components of the Arctic system at landscape to regional
scales, within the context of high-latitude climatic changes and their subsequent cultural and socio-economic
implications. This overarching objective has three research components: - 1) understand the interactions among
natural, infrastructure, cultural, and socio-economic components of these Arctic systems, 2) assess the current status of
these Arctic landscapes and communities with respect to resilience in the face of local, regional, and global changes,
and 3) develop strategies for promoting and ensuring the long-term resilience of these coupled human-natural systems.
This objective and its components are clearly daunting with respect to their achievement; however, with the research
expertise and experiences of this CoLab Project Team, in connection with numerous potential Arctic research and
stakeholder collaborators, they can be accomplished for a well-defined Arctic community and its surrounding landscape.
Results can provide theoretical and practical knowledge for extrapolation to other Arctic communities throughout the
entire Arctic region.