Arctic Construction Under Climatological Constraints: A Decision Support System for Expeditionary Construction Site Selection in the Arctic Environment

• Main Author: Wontrop, Zachary S.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: AFIT Scholar 2023
• Subjects: Decision support system; Cold regions engineering; Construction Engineering and Management; Arctic; Climate change
• Online Access: https://scholar.afit.edu/etd/6987; https://scholar.afit.edu/context/etd/article/7990/viewcontent/1.__AFIT_ENV_MS_23_M_246___Wontrop.pdf

The natural physical barriers present in the Arctic are being eroded by climate change, increasing near peer adversaries' abilities to exploit this region for strategic and economic gain. To maintain the Arctic as a region of strategic and economic international cooperation, increased infrastructure investment by the United States and its allies are required. No methodology currently exists to quantify construction-limiting climatological factors over time and space. Decision support systems can provide actionable information to guide decision makers during site selection. This research employs geographic, and time-coded historical climatology applied to a project case study, to develop a site selection decision support system. Historical climatology is converted into a probability construct that is used to estimate project duration's, probability of success, and risk of failure over variable time and space. This methodology could be used to inform construction site selection in any geography with climatological constraints.