Workshop with the residents of Qaanaaq in Greenland

We held a workshop with the residents of the Qaanaaq Village on 29th July. This workshop is to present our research activities to the local people, and to exchange information of environmental change and its impact on the society. This event has been organized every summer since 2016 to build a collaborative relationship with the locals. Researchers from Hokkaido University, Kyoto University and Calgary University participated the workshop this year. We introduced our research activities on ice caps, glaciers, the ocean and landslide, which were followed by questions from the audience. 20–30 people attended and listened to our presentations carefully.

The participants asked a lot of questions and gave comments on our research results. Many of the questions were directly related to their lives. The questions include the likely location of landslide in the future and the possibility of such disaster in the Qaanaaq Village. I realized that our research has a good potential to contribute to a better life of the local residents. After the workshop, we conducted a questionnaire survey on the environmental changes. People responded to our survey with interests. Preliminary result of the survey shows that the people realize rapid changes in the nature and recognize the impact on the human society. We provided the participants ocean bathymetry maps generated from our ocean measurements. Many people said that the maps are useful for fishing and hunting. We believe the interaction with the residents is important for our activity in the future.

Izumi Asaji (Hokkaido University)

Presentation by S. Yamasaki on landslide occurred in a nearby village Siorapaluk