| Summary: | Land use decisions can facilitate or hinder the creation of healthy communities and as such, the health and well-being of their residents. This research project has the goal of exploring the connections between land use planning and community health in remote, Arctic communities; it asks a central question: if we were given the means to improve community health through planning, how would we best proceed? Arctic communities are experiencing rapid change as a result of demographic, economic and technological factors. The pressure for resource development in the Arctic is significant and communities are facing challenging decisions in terms of land use in their regions. In addition, measures of health and well-being indicate health deficits in Arctic communities in comparison with non-Arctic communities in Canada. As such, Arctic communities represent an important study region due to both this compelling health deficit, as well as increased pressure on the land base. For this research project, the Inuvialuit region, NWT was used as a case study. A qualitative inquiry was undertaken given the research objective of generating localized and specific information in the context of remote, Arctic communities. In addition, limited information was available on the subject area which made this ‘theory generating’ methodology most relevant. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with expert/ knowledge holders, the majority of whom were from the study area. Information gathered was analyzed using the constant comparison method. Available statistical and quantitative data from secondary sources was compiled into community profiles and used for comparison with interview data and to add richness to the analysis. The study indicated that there was strong connection between community health and land use in the region. The reasons given for this connection were as follows: cultural connection – describing the basis for culture that arises from the historic and current connection with the land, self-determination – as it ...
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