Human Settlements in the Arctic. An Account of the ECE Symposium on Human Settlements Planning and Development in the Arctic, Godthåb, Greenland, 18–25 August 1978

118 Pages·1980·2.95 MB·English

United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Some other titles in this series from Pergamon Press
HOUSING FOR SPECIAL GROUPS
BEHAVIOUR OF WOOD PRODUCTS IN FIRE
PROTEIN AND NON-PROTEIN NITROGEN FOR RUMINANTS
FROZEN AND QUICK-FROZEN FOOD
FACTORS OF GROWTH AND INVESTMENT POLICIES
COAL: 1985 AND BEYOND
NON-WASTE TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCTION
THE GAS INDUSTRY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
BUILDING RESEARCH POLICIES
STATISTICAL SERVICES IN TEN YEARS' TIME
HUMAN SETTLEMENTS AND ENERGY
ELECTRICAL LOAD-CURVE COVERAGE
ENGINEERING EQUIPMENT FOR FOUNDRIES
INTEGRATED STATISTICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 1977
FINE PARTICULATE POLLUTION
PROBLEMS OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF
LESS-FAVOURED AREAS IN EUROPE
SELECTED WATER PROBLEMS IN ISLANDS AND COASTAL AREAS
THE GAS SITUATION IN THE ECE REGION AROUND THE YEAR 1990
TRENDS IN AIRBORNE EQUIPMENT FOR AGRICULTURE AND
OTHER AREAS
ENERGY ASPECTS OF THE FOREST INDUSTRIES
OILS AND GASES FROM COAL
NOTICE TO READ]
\
Dear Reader,
If your library is not already a standing order customer or subscriber to this series, may we recom-
mend that you place a standing or subscription order to receive immediately upon publication all new
volumes published in this valuable series. Should you find that these volumes no longer serve your needs
your order can be cancelled at any time without notice.
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
Some other titles in this series from Pergamon Press
HOUSING FOR SPECIAL GROUPS
BEHAVIOUR OF WOOD PRODUCTS IN FIRE
PROTEIN AND NON-PROTEIN NITROGEN FOR RUMINANTS
FROZEN AND QUICK-FROZEN FOOD
FACTORS OF GROWTH AND INVESTMENT POLICIES
COAL: 1985 AND BEYOND
NON-WASTE TECHNOLOGY AND PRODUCTION
THE GAS INDUSTRY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
BUILDING RESEARCH POLICIES
STATISTICAL SERVICES IN TEN YEARS' TIME
HUMAN SETTLEMENTS AND ENERGY
ELECTRICAL LOAD-CURVE COVERAGE
ENGINEERING EQUIPMENT FOR FOUNDRIES
INTEGRATED STATISTICAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS 1977
FINE PARTICULATE POLLUTION
PROBLEMS OF THE AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT OF
LESS-FAVOURED AREAS IN EUROPE
SELECTED WATER PROBLEMS IN ISLANDS AND COASTAL AREAS
THE GAS SITUATION IN THE ECE REGION AROUND THE YEAR 1990
TRENDS IN AIRBORNE EQUIPMENT FOR AGRICULTURE AND
OTHER AREAS
ENERGY ASPECTS OF THE FOREST INDUSTRIES
OILS AND GASES FROM COAL
NOTICE TO READ]
\
Dear Reader,
If your library is not already a standing order customer or subscriber to this series, may we recom-
mend that you place a standing or subscription order to receive immediately upon publication all new
volumes published in this valuable series. Should you find that these volumes no longer serve your needs
your order can be cancelled at any time without notice.
Human Settlements
in the Arctic
An account of the ECE Symposium on Human Settlements
Planning and Development in the Arctic
Godthab, Greenland, 18-25 August 1978
Published for the
UNITED NATIONS
by
PERGAMON PRESS
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Copyright © 1980 United Nations
All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be
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First edition 1980
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
ECE Symposium on Human Settlements Planning and
Development in the Arctic, Godthab, 1978
Human settlements in the Arctic.
1. City planning - Arctic regions - Congresses
2. Regional planning - Arctic regions - Congresses
I. Title II. Economic Commission for Europe
309.2'62'0998 HT169.A/ 79-42797
ISBN 0-08-023448-8
In order to make this volume available as economically
and as rapidly as possible the author's typescript has
been reproduced in its original form.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
William Clowes {Beccles) Limited, Beccles and London
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This account of the Godthab- symposium draws on both the documentation submitted
by the participating governments and the discussions in Godthab. It was prepared
in the Environment and Human Settlements Division of the ECE secretariat. The
secretariat is grateful to Mr. 0. Johannessen (Gr0nlands Tekniske Organisation)
for his comments on the text.
vii
THE ARCTIC: A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY
The boundaries of the Arctic can be defined according to many different criteria;
these include climate, vegetation and the distribution of sea-ice. A frequently-
used definition distinguishes between the treeless tundra of the Arctic, north of
the general limit of forest, and the boreal forest of the Subarctic.
Many of the problems facing human settlements planning and development in the
North are common to both Arctic and Subarctic. These problems include severe
climate, continuous or discontinuous permafrost and other site development
hazards, difficulty of access and remoteness from services and sources of supply.
Therefore, unless a clear distinction is explicitly drawn, the terms "Arctic"
and "North" in this book normally include both the zone of the arctic tundra and
that of the subarctic boreal forest.
viii
INTRODUCTION
The member countries of the Economic Commission for Europe form an ECE region that
completely surrounds the North Pole. From Scandinavia eastwards through the USSR
to the Diomede Islands in Bering Strait, then eastwards again through Alaska,
northern Canada, Greenland and Iceland back to Scandinavia; geographically at least,
the Arctic Circle is one of the cords that binds the ECE region together.
Of course, the ECE region is far from being a group of countries with cold climates.
Housing and other settlement characteristics in the sub-tropical USSR, in the coun-
tries that form the northern rim of the Mediterranean, and in the southern states
of the USA are in many respects quite different from those of Scandinavia or Alaska.
The existence of such strong climatic and other physical contrasts across the ECE
region generates social and economic issues that have been of growing importance
to governments. These include the question of national standards and objectives
in housing and community facilities. The residents of Nome, Alaska are citizens
of the United States, like those who live in New Orleans or New York City; a Soviet
citizen may live in Samarkand, or Moscow, or Novosibirsk. To what extent can people
who live in such widely differing ccmmunities in the same country be provided with
similar standards of housing, transportation and social and cultural opportunities,
irrespective of their place of residence ? A line must evidently be drawn some-
where. National governments have long accepted an obligation to provide mail
service to all their citizens on as regular a basis as possible; but those who
live in remote northern communities cannot usually expect to have an opera house
within easy reach. In most cases, however, drawing the line is not easy, and when
it is drawn it is likely to need re-examination in a relatively short space of time.
What was regarded as impossible on technical grounds a decade ago (e.g. live tele-
vision) may become feasible through technical developments such as satellites;
what seemed hopelessly expensive (e.g. roads, centralised water supply and sanita-
tion services in small ccmmunities) may come to be regarded as essential despite
the expense.
The difficulties involved in finding the appropriate balance between regional con-
straints and broader national and international standards were a pervasive theme in
the Symposium on Human Settlements Planning and Development in the Arctic which
took place in Greenland in August 1978. Only slightly less important were the
practical problems involved in providing the appropriate level of services to
3
4 Human Settlements in the Arctic
arctic carrnunities. The syrrposium brought together, through national delegations
and national reports to the symposium, experience accumulated in all the ECE member
countries with arctic or subarctic climates: Canada, Denmark, Iceland, Norway,
Sweden, Finland, the USSR and the USA.
As noted by the Minister for Greenland in his speech of welcome (p.7), the
symposium was one contribution to implementing the provisions of the Final Act of
the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe, signed in Helsinki in 1975.
The Final Act recognized that possibilities for greater international co-operation
existed in regard to:
"Research on glaciology, permafrost and problems of life under conditions of
cold
Research on glaciology and permafrost; transportation and construction
technologies; human adaptation to climatic extremes and changes in the living
conditions of indigenous populations".
For the Economic Carmission for Europe, this symposium on arctic problems was a new
departure and the meeting at Godthab was the first event under ECE auspices to take
place in Greenland. As noted by the ECE Executive Secretary (p. 14) cooperation
at the sub-regional level is already well-established among ECE countries in sou-
thern Europe. It seems likely that the Greenland symposium will also mark the
beginning of more continuous contacts among northern countries. Among the recorxnen-
dations of the symposium (p. 114) is one that looks to a further meeting on similar
lines. Meanwhile the Senior Advisers to ECE Governments on Science and Technology
have begun preparations for a possible seminar on International Aspects of Research
and Development in the Arctic.
It would, however, be a mistake to see the Greenland Symposium as a meeting solely
concerned with arctic and subarctic problems. The topics that were discussed, and
that are reflected in this volume, often concern small and remote carrnunities in
other climates. The annual march of the seasons also brings subarctic and some-
times arctic weather to a large part of the ECE region. Construction methods in
this wider area may be unconcerned with such matters as frost-heaving or melting
permafrost; other arctic and subarctic building problems, however, such as insula-
tion, multiple glazing, air leakage and condensation are of growing concern in tem-
perate latitudes, especially in a period of rising energy costs. On such matters,
it may be the temperate areas that must learn from and adapt the experience and
techniques of arctic and subarctic areas, reversing the usual direction of such
transfers*
***
The structure of this volume is in three main parts. Following this introduction
are the edited texts of statements made at the opening of the seminar, which pro-
vided political and technical contexts for the subsequent discussions.
Introduction 5
Part II is devoted to the substantive issues. These fall generally into three main
categories: (i) the goals and objectives that governments are pursuing through
their policies and programmes for human settlements planning in the Arctic; (ii)
crarmunity planning requirements to meet both physical needs (e.g. water supply,
sewage disposal, transportation), and the more intangible social needs; (iii) spe-
cific problems associated with the construction process in cold climates. These
chapters are based on the national reports on the symposium theme submitted by the
national delegations taking part. It also utilises additional documentation,
mainly prepared for a wider technical audience, that was submitted to the symposium
as supporting material, and it includes many comments made during the symposium
itself. In regard to planning issues, this may mean that there is an emphasis on
the problems of small communities, since much of the dcojmentation and discussion
concerned smaller settlements. Many of the construction problems considered in
Chapter are of course encountered whatever the size of the community.
In Part III will be found the formal conclusions and recommendations adopted at
the end of the symposium, a note on dcoirentation and a list of participants.
ADDRESS ON BEHALF OF THE
GOVERNMENT OF DENMARK
J. P. HANSEN
Minister for Greenland
It gives me great pleasure to extend to all of you a most hearty welcome to Green-
land.
As a follow up to the recommendations in the Final Act of the Conference on Securi-
ty and Co-operation in Europe, the Danish Government took the initiative to propose
this ECE Symposium on Human Settlements Planning and Development in the Arctic, to
promote the identification and development of projects of mutual interest and bene-
fit in the solution of problems arising from life in arctic regions. Last Septem-
ber the ECE Committee on Housing, Building and Planning agreed that the Symposium
should be held under its auspices, and I believe that this confirms the importance
of the idea behind the seminar and augurs well for its success. Through this effort
you will not only contribute to the realization of the recommendations contained
in the economic chapter of the Final Act, but also to the realization of the policy
of detente and co-operation.
I should like to extend a special welcome to Mr. Janez Stanovnik, Executive Secre-
tary of the Economic Commission for Europe, whose presence on this occasion is
greatly appreciated by the Danish Government.
It is my Government's hope that this Symposium in Greenland will provide the parti-
cipating experts with an opportunity to exchange experience in their respective
fields, for the benefit of the people who live under the extreme conditions of an
arctic climate. Before officially opening the Symposium, I should like to give you
a few facts about Greenland.
Geographically, Greenland lies between 59 and 84 degrees northern latitude? it is
therefore almost entirely within the Arctic Circle. The icecap covers more than
five-sixths of the total area, leaving a rather narrow coastal strip of land avail-
able for human settlement.
For thousands of years this coastal strip has been populated by Eskimo seal-hunters.
Life was hard, and survival depended entirely on maximum utilization of natural
7