Stabilizing Thawing Ground: Meltwater Management in Utqiaġvik, Alaska

Stabilizing Thawing Ground preserves urban Arctic landscapes by mapping, managing, and designing with snow and meltwater in Utqiaġvik, AK. Utqiaġvik sits on ice-rich permafrost and is rapidly warming, putting it at risk. Snow depth and ground saturation play a critical role in heat transfer, making a holistic approach to their management essential. Given the extreme difficulty of importing new materials, the project activates environmental phenomena and routine maintenance as design tools. Furthermore, the project team worked closely with local experts to align its work with city capacity. The resulting proposal gives residents agency by presenting watershed-specific management plans and a suite of analyses to inform future decision-making.

Background – Climate Urgency in Call for Innovative Planning 

Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, is experiencing environmental damage from climate change more rapidly than much of the world. Located 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle and accessible only by plane or boat, Utqiaġvik is striving to preserve its culturally rich Iñupiat community amid limited resources and a lack of context-specific landscape management practices. 

Changing precipitation patterns, shifting freeze-thaw cycles, the urban heat island effect, and standing water are significantly degrading permafrost beneath the constantly moving active layer, threatening homes, infrastructure, and cultural resources. The current ad hoc approach to managing snow, ice, and meltwater highlights the need for proactive, actionable strategies to maintain ground stability, a critical foundation for environmental and cultural resilience in this extreme climate. 

Proposition – Cultural & Ecological Preservation through Analytical Planning Efforts 

The project optimizes permafrost preservation in urbanized tundra areas by enhancing local capacity and systematizing Public Works’ approach to snow and meltwater management. The project also presents detailed drainage proposals at the site and sub-watershed scale to supplement city-scale planning. 

Methodology – Hybrid Approaches for Evidence-based Design 

The project synthesizes city-scale remote sensing, GIS-based hydrologic analysis, ground-truthing fieldwork, community insights, and literature reviews into a novel, maintenance-based approach to permafrost preservation, activating local capacity for managing snow and meltwater. Hydrologic sensitivity maps were developed using customized DEM’s to address meltwater issues strategically and proactively. Also, as part of ongoing NSF-funded research, faculty, local institutions, Iñupiat organizations, and resident interviews informed the approach. 

Design – Watershed-based Planning as Community Empowerment Tools 

The project proposes zoning by watershed blocks, instead of conventional road grids, as a more effective management strategy. This approach connects small communities within each watershed, enabling them to develop drainage solutions as part of a cohesive hydrologic system. The design choreographs the movement of snow based on thermal principles, reshaping the ground using available machinery, local knowledge, and active layer thermodynamics to improve drainage performance and permafrost stability. The resulting topography recreates, in an urban context, the natural flow of water through polygonal tundra. 

Impacts 

In residential areas, the resulting drainage network gives homeowners agency to keep foundations dry and stable while referencing native ecologies in their backyard. Near polluted sites like the airport, intentionally slowing meltwater keeps contaminants from entering the drinking water supply. In more dense areas, the hydrologic maps allow for systematizing maintenance during the spring melt to limit flooding. 

Vision – From Analytical Planning to Design and Management Initiative

The proposal offers a synthetic, multi-scalar approach to guide systemized snow and meltwater management in Utqiaġvik, empowering the city with actionable planning solutions that preserve its culture, permafrost, and unique ecology without imported materials. Given the accelerated pace of climate change in the Far North, such approaches are essential for the survival of urban Arctic communities.