This record contains the GIS data layers that were produced by the North Slope Science Initiative (NSSI) scenario process. These data are organized around scenario workshops and include:
Workshop 1 - Scenario Identification. This includes the high, medium and low development scenario maps.
Workshop 2 - Scenario Implications. Implications were grouped in six broad categories which were: subsistence, economic factors, human/social, marine and coastal systems, terrestrial and freshwater systems, and also physical factors.
Workshop 3 - Scenario Research and Monitoring
The GIS data used in this analysis as well as the GIS map products produced in this analysis can be downloaded using the links below.
The North Slope Science Initiation (NSSI) commissioned a scenario project as a means to provide NSSI member agencies with guidance for moving forward on implementing research and monitoring recommendations and priorities. The NSSI partnered with a research consortium, formed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and GeoAdaptive, LLC, a scenario-specialist consulting group, to develop the Scenarios Project. These scenarios for energy and resource development helped envision the potential future state of the socio-ecological systems of the North Slope and adjacent seas, and can thereby inform and help resource management agencies to develop appropriate research and monitoring strategies for the future.
The scenarios identified through this collaborative effort reflect a plausible range of potential future conditions in the region through 2040. However, these scenarios do not represent a development plan for the region; they were designed to be used as the basis for discussion on the future of the region to help best identify future research and monitoring priorities. As noted above, while the outcomes of this project provide a powerful and widely vetted tool to inform research and monitoring priorities, they do not set those priorities for NSSI or its individual member entities. This is not a policy document.
