Development Challenges in Alaska:
Uneven development:
● Adapting to cold tundra environment in Alaska is a challenge
○ There is virtually no settled population in Alaska due to low temperatures and months without sunlight
● Absence of people reflects low carrying capacity of land
○ Permafrost and short thermal growing season don’t allow for crop production
● Indigenous people initially settled along Alaska’s coastal margins
○ Developed a subsistence economy based on fishing and seal hunting
○ Traditionally coped with clothes made from caribou skin and sealskin boots
○ Increasingly adopted the use of modern textiles (eg/ Gore-tex)
Accessibility:
● Cold environments are sparsely populated with few communication links
○ Makes the area difficult to reach
○ People cannot rely on reliable supplies of food/energy
● Alaska lacks surfaced roads
○ Hunters, miners and explorers have to make their own way across the tundra
○ Physical processes make roads dangerous and difficult to use
● Examples of physical processes:
○ Snow and ice make roads/tracks unstable for a few months
○ Solifluction takes place in summer
■ Soil’s active layer starts to flow downhill
■ Soil and mud collects at the base of slopes → covers highways/cuts of access for months
○ Permafrost covers most of Alaska
■ Seasonal melting of active layer in summer → hinders off-road travel
○ Overtime, melting and refreezing of active layer results in great expanses of uneven surface
■ Thermokarst = uneven landscape of mounds/hollows, some which may be water filled
● Makes travel impossible in some places
○ Frost heave can make tracks dangerous
■ Frost heave = pebbles and stones slowly rise upwards towards the ground
Infrastructure and buildings:
● Techniques to reduce impact of cold weather :
○ High-pitched, steel roofs are used to allow snow to slide off
○ Triple-glazed windows help insulate homes
○ Roads are built on gravel pads to stop heat transfer
○ Utilities (eg/ water) are carried by “ utility corridors ” → will freeze if stored underground
○ Airport runways are painted white to reflect sunlight /stop them from warming up too much
● Active layer melting causes serious challenged to buildings
○ Heat created by buildings/settlements makes damage worse
○ Buildings built by early European settlers in 1880s are now not in use
■ Escaping heat from underside of building led to melting of permafrost
■ Ice loses volume when it turns into water → caused home to sink
● Millions of km of permafrost have been damaged due to insufficient attention being paid to soil conditions
○ New buildings are now being raised on piles to prevent melting
■ Piles can lift a structure several metres above surface
■ Are sunk deep into the land , below the active layer
○ Telescopic piles are used → can expand/contract in response to ground movement