Cumulative Environmental Impacts in the Gwich’in Cultural Landscape

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dc.contributor.authorProverbs, Tracey Angela
dc.contributor.authorLantz, Trevor C.
dc.contributor.authorGwich'in Tribal Concil Department of Cultural Heritage
dc.date.accessioned2020-07-10T22:47:19Z
dc.date.available2020-07-10T22:47:19Z
dc.date.copyright2020en_US
dc.date.issued2020
dc.description.abstractEnvironmental changes are impacting northern environments and human communities. Cumulative impact assessments are vital to understanding the combined effects of regional industrial developments and natural disturbances that affect humans and ecosystems. A gap in cumulative impacts literature includes methods to evaluate impacts in cultural landscapes. In this study, we utilized spatial overlay analysis to assess cumulative environmental impacts in the cultural landscape of northern Canada’s Gwich’in Settlement Region. In three analyses, we quantified and mapped: (1) Cultural feature density, (2) cumulative environmental disturbance, and (3) potential overlap between disturbances and cultural features. Our first analysis depicts the extent and pattern of cultural relationships with regional landscapes and illustrates the Gwich’in cultural landscape, with widespread harvesting trails, named places, traditional use areas, and archaeological sites found in highest densities near important waterways. Our second analysis suggests that spatial overlay can track multiple disturbances, illustrating diffuse, lower intensity cumulative environmental impacts. The final analysis shows that overlaying disturbance and cultural feature data provides a novel way to investigate cumulative impacts in a cultural landscape, indicating relatively low levels of potential overlap between Gwich’in cultural features and disturbances. These methods provide one way to investigate cumulative impacts, relevant for well- documented cultural landscapes.en_US
dc.description.reviewstatusRevieweden_US
dc.description.scholarlevelFacultyen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipThis research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada through the Tracking Change project (grant number 895-2015-1024), and by the Northern Scientific Training Program.en_US
dc.identifier.citationProverbs, T. A., Lantz, T. C., & Gwich’in Tribal Council Department of Cultural Heritage(2020). Cumulative environmental impacts in the Gwich’in cultural landscape. Sustainability, 12(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12114667en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.3390/su12114667
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1828/11924
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.publisherSustainabilityen_US
dc.subjectcumulative impact assessmenten_US
dc.subjectcultural landscapeen_US
dc.subjectcultural featureen_US
dc.subjectspatial overlay analysisen_US
dc.subjectCanadian subarcticen_US
dc.subjectGwich'inen_US
dc.titleCumulative Environmental Impacts in the Gwich’in Cultural Landscapeen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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We acknowledge and respect the Lək̓ʷəŋən (Songhees and Esquimalt) Peoples on whose territory the university stands, and the Lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ Peoples whose historical relationships with the land continue to this day.