MLA student, Thomas Davis-Moore’s Research Experience to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories

Master of Landscape Architecture student, Thomas Davis-Moore, recently returned from a trip to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, where he supported the ongoing climate change adaptation research with Dr. Kearney Coupland, Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture.  

During the visit, Thomas was fortunate to sit in with local leadership groups and spend time engaging with high school students at Mangilaluk School. At the school, the team presented different ways of understanding the science behind some of the environmental impacts being observed in the community. Devalynn Pokiak, the research community liaison with the Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk talked about the projects she was working on regarding contaminants and her experience collaborating with western science researchers. Dustin Whalen of Natural Resources Canada shared his work on coastal erosion and the wave-driven erosion of coastal pingos, while Pia Petzold of the Alfred Wegener Institute walked students through the geophysics of permafrost thaw using 3D-printed models of permafrost features. Students contributed their own observations through a participatory mapping activity led by Morgan Berthuessen of McGill University. Davis-Moore shared drone footage of local sites where these processes are visible on the Oculus headset. Before the visit, he processed raw drone footage from several communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, including Tuktoyaktuk, to prepare VR content for sharing within those communities.

My thanks go to the staff, students, and community members who shared their time, and to the research team whose work and relationships made this visit possible. The trip offered a meaningful introduction to the challenges the community is navigating and to the considered adaptation work already underway, and I look forward to returning.

Prior to Thomas’s visit, Prof. Coupland had travelled to Tuktoyaktuk, Paulatuk, Ulukhaktok and Sachs Harbour with the research team to meet with leadership, councils and the youth to identify priorities for coastal monitoring and climate change adaptation. Below are photos of activities that took place in the schools with different age groups.

Image:  Mapping priorities in Tuktoyaktuk with elementary students.

Image:  Learning about permafrost with Devalynn Pokiak, community liaison in Tuktoyaktuk.