NOAA funds UB project to study climate adaptation in Alaska

Aerial view of Fairbanks, AK skyline. Credit: Quitin Soloviev.

Aerial view of Fairbanks, Alaska, where a UB-led team will head a project that aims to, in part, understand how climate adaptation intersects with long-standing challenges related to housing delivery. Photo: Quintin Soloviev, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Release Date: January 22, 2025

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Nicholas Rajkovich, PhD, associate professor of architecture.
“Understanding what is happening in Alaska regarding climate change can also help us understand how New York State and this part of the country could be impacted in the decades to come. ”
Nicholas Rajkovich, PhD, associate professor of architecture
University at Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. – To better understand how climate change may impact Buffalo and New York State in the years to come, it makes sense to study a part of the country where those effects are already occurring.

That’s what researchers from the University at Buffalo are doing with community partners in Alaska as part of a $300,000 grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Program Office. UB’s grant is one of eight awards nationally, totaling nearly $2.4 million, aimed at building the nation’s climate resilience.

Climate resilience refers to a region’s ability to adapt to, prepare for and recover from the effects of a changing climate.

The UB team will partner with the Cold Climate Housing Research Center (CCHRC) and Alaska Adaptable Housing in Fairbanks, Alaska, on a project that will evaluate housing design and housing programs in a changing climate. The project is being guided by an advisory panel of Alaska regional tribal housing providers and the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation.

The two-year project’s main goals are to improve housing delivery, understand how climate adaptation intersects with long-standing challenges related to housing delivery, and analyze housing design to reflect the impacts of a rapidly changing climate. Following stakeholder interviews, the research team will develop an evaluation tool to test out its approach on six different housing projects.

“Climate change is accelerating more rapidly in the Arctic than any other region on Earth,” says Nicholas Rajkovich, PhD, associate professor of architecture in UB’s School of Architecture and Planning and the principal investigator on the project. “Understanding what is happening in Alaska regarding climate change can also help us understand how New York State and this part of the country could be impacted in the decades to come.”

Parts of Alaska are seeing weather that more closely resembles a Buffalo winter, with heavy snowfall and temperatures in the mid-30s. In addition, scores of small, remote and predominantly Alaska Native communities are grappling with permafrost degradation, dramatic ground subsidence, flooding and erosion and may need to relocate, says Stacey Fritz, a consultant with Alaska Adaptable Housing and a co-principal investigator on the grant.

“This project aligns with CCHRC’s mission to advance sustainable solutions for healthy and resilient homes in cold climates, and we are excited to work with UB and statewide partners toward a shared understanding of how to evaluate climate resilient designs,” says CCHRC Executive Director Mindy O’Neall, who is also a co-principal investigator.

Fritz adds that the logistical and environmental challenges of building homes in remote Alaska present serious constraints, and those constraints actually drive innovation that many regions outside Alaska will benefit from.

NOAA notes that Alaska is home to some of the country’s most innovative climate adaptation efforts. Community partners in Alaska have expressed a need for clear metrics and an easy-to-use tool that can facilitate evaluating housing for resilience to climate change and its effects.

“There is an urgency around adapting housing to climate change and supporting people in their homes, but it’s difficult to know whether these efforts are working,” adds co-principal investigator Meghan Holtan, a student in the urban and regional planning PhD program at UB who worked for 10 years as a planner and analyst in Anchorage, Alaska.

Media Contact Information

David J. Hill
Director of Media Relations
Public Health, Architecture, Urban and Regional Planning, Sustainability
Tel: 716-645-4651
davidhil@buffalo.edu