Rich local knowledge despite high transience in an Arctic community experiencing rapid environmental change

The study addresses whether transient communities can generate rich local ecological knowledge that complements scientific environmental monitoring. The context is Svalbard, a High Arctic climate-change hotspot where formal monitoring is extensive yet often parameter-specific and geographically limited. The authors contrast scientific monitoring’s specificity with the multifaceted, experiential nature of local knowledge and note that increasing mobility and translocality challenge place-based notions of community. They examine the role of place attachment among Svalbard’s largely non-indigenous, mobile population whose interactions with the environment occur through work and recreation. The research questions are: (1) Can rich local knowledge—using community science methodology—be gathered in a place characterized by a high level of transience? (2) What is the role of place attachment in enabling such knowledge?

The paper situates local knowledge within broader concepts of traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and Indigenous Knowledge, highlighting debates about the status of local vs. global knowledge and calls to reconfigure notions of place and knowledge integration in monitoring and management. It reviews theories of translocality and place attachment, challenging assumptions that mobility weakens bonds to places; instead, mobility can foster stronger attachments when people choose places aligned with their values. Place attachment influences environmental awareness, community identity, and collective responsibility, potentially motivating contributions to community science. The authors discuss community science (including participatory monitoring) as a bridge between science and practice and note efforts to connect top-down monitoring with bottom-up, locally managed observing systems. They argue that all knowledge systems—Indigenous, traditional, local, transient, and scientific—are experiential, involving observation, inference, and prediction linked to place, and that integrating them can produce a more holistic understanding of environmental change.

Design: A mixed community science approach combined (i) a public participatory GIS (PPGIS) survey using Maptionnaire, (ii) focus groups, and (iii) cognitive mapping to elicit, locate, and synthesize local observations and perceived environmental system linkages across Svalbard.

Maptionnaire: An online PPGIS platform (English, Norwegian, Russian) launched mid-October 2021 solicited geolocated observations of environmental change. Participants could link text, narratives, photos, and files to mapped points. Nine categories, adapted from Svalbard monitoring programs and the CLEO platform, structured entries: weather; ice and snow; land/landscape; sea and ocean; freshwater; plants and animals; built environment; littering and pollution; other. Invitations were distributed to all registered residents and broadly via social media, organizations, museums, research networks, tourism actors, former residents lists, and authors’ networks. A short questionnaire captured demographics and affiliations.

Focus groups: Four focus groups were conducted in Longyearbyen to obtain narrative-based observations from purposefully selected participants: long-term/returning residents (including seasonal workers) and veteran tourists/guides. One group (n=6) met in Oct 2021; three groups (n=5, n=4, n=5) met in Jan 2022. Recruitment used social media, personal contacts, and snowball sampling. Written informed consent was obtained. Discussions encouraged storytelling about experiences of change, often map-referenced, to provide context, timelines, and perceived drivers.

Cognitive mapping: Using Kumu software, the team synthesized Maptionnaire and focus group data into fuzzy cognitive maps capturing perceived relationships among environmental variables, including positive (+) and negative (–) influences. Initial nodes reflected Maptionnaire categories, with additional nodes emerging inductively from the data. Mapping supported inductive analysis, pattern identification, and hypothesis generation, revealing system-level understandings (e.g., linkages among weather, cryosphere, mobility, wildlife, and safety).

• Participation and data volume: By 11/03/2022, the Maptionnaire yielded 460 georeferenced observations; focus groups contributed 126 additional accounts. Despite >80% of participants being residents of Longyearbyen, mapped observations covered a large geographic extent across Svalbard.
• Demographics/affiliations: Participants included diverse ages and nationalities, with many connected to outdoor activities (e.g., hunters/fishers, outdoor organizations, tourist guides), reflecting the community’s mobility and engagement with the environment.
• Thematic emphasis: “Snow and ice” was the most used category—48% reported cryospheric changes (glacier retreat, unstable/thinner sea/fjord ice, crevasses, changing snow conditions, altered meltwater channels). Observations linked glacier retreat and milder, wetter seasons to increased landslides, slush avalanches, trail washouts, shifting river courses, and accessibility changes.
• Biophysical changes: Reports noted greener tundra and more insects; permafrost instability affecting buildings, roads, and bird nesting grounds; fewer reindeer near Longyearbyen but more in other areas; earlier goose arrival with earlier snowmelt; occasional plant phenology shifts; increased polar bear presence near settlements; diminishing sea ice and coastal erosion.
• Mobility and safety: Environmental changes hinder movement along established recreational/work routes (e.g., east-coast and Pyramiden trips), with more glacier travel due to lack of sea ice and increased crevasse hazards. Cognitive maps showed many negative impacts on mobility (less/unstable sea ice, changing meltwater patterns, crevasses). Participants reported decreased safety due to avalanches, rockfalls, unstable slopes, and mudflows.
• Monitoring gaps and mismatches: Scientific glacier/ice monitoring clusters around Longyearbyen/Adventdalen and Ny-Ålesund/Kongsfjorden, overlapping only some snowmobile routes. Notable gaps include lack of decadal-scale mass-balance measurements for Larsbreen and Longyearbreen—key local travel corridors—despite extensive monitoring elsewhere.
• Sense of place and knowledge generation: Strong place attachment arose from frequent outdoor interactions for work and recreation. Cognitive mapping revealed nuanced system understandings linking weather to landscapes, wildlife, seasonality, and mobility, and captured values/emotions (uncertainty, responsibility toward fragile environments). The transient community nevertheless holds rich, relational local knowledge.
• Relevance for future monitoring: Community priorities emphasize safety-relevant monitoring (ice conditions, glacier hazards, avalanches, permafrost-related instabilities) and better visibility/accessibility of existing data for local publics.

Findings directly address the research questions: rich local knowledge can be gathered in a highly transient setting, and place attachment—cultivated through extensive outdoor activity—plays a central role in generating that knowledge. The spatial breadth and thematic depth of community observations complement formal monitoring’s limited-site, parameter-specific data, adding narratives, causal linkages, and human relevance (e.g., mobility and safety). The mismatch between monitoring locations and mobility networks suggests integrating community-derived route information to guide placement of safety-relevant monitoring and to inform risk management. Methodologically, combining PPGIS, focus groups, and cognitive mapping effectively elicits and synthesizes experiential knowledge into system-level insights, supporting a multiple evidence base alongside scientific observations. Conceptually, the results support a shift from a purely localist view to ‘communities of attachment,’ recognizing that mobility can foster strong bonds and actionable knowledge. Integrating these knowledge systems can enhance monitoring relevance, democratize data use, and improve adaptation and safety strategies in rapidly changing Arctic environments.

The study demonstrates that transience does not preclude the development of valuable local ecological knowledge. In Svalbard, a transient community with strong place attachment generated rich, geographically extensive observations that contextualize and complement formal environmental monitoring, especially regarding cryosphere change, mobility, and safety. The community science toolkit (PPGIS, focus groups, cognitive mapping) effectively captured narratives, system linkages, and monitoring needs, revealing mismatches between existing monitoring sites and everyday mobility routes. The authors advocate integrating community-derived insights with scientific monitoring to build a multiple evidence base, prioritize safety-relevant indicators (ice/glacier conditions, avalanches, permafrost stability), and ensure data and interpretations are visible and useful to local publics. Future work should co-produce monitoring designs with communities, close geographic/topic gaps (e.g., local travel corridors like Larsbreen/Longyearbreen), and link community observation platforms with earth observation and formal networks to enhance relevance and resilience.

The paper does not include an explicit limitations section.