This report provides an overview of the discussions and consensus recommendations of the participants in the 4th Canadian Polar Data Workshop (CPDW 4). It includes information on CPDW 1–3 outcomes and the continued development of a national polar data governance structure for Canada. Recommendations are presented for the implementation of a coordinating body to support a National Arctic Data Committee and a National Committee on Observing Networks to strengthen Canadian engagement at home and abroad in polar, and more specifically, Arctic data, observation, and science initiatives, fora, and processes.

Analysis and prediction of permafrost change are hampered by lack of observational data. We implement a permafrost data management system to support multi-variable permafrost observation networks. It addresses five key challenges we identified for permafrost data management and publication: (1) existing data management strategies do not scale well, (2) data users have different skills and needs, (3) permafrost data are varied, (4) resources for permafrost data management are limited, and (5) existing permafrost data sources are difficult to integrate. This prototype system supports a workflow from observation to the distribution of interoperable data. It comprises a database with auxiliary software, a set of practices, and an ERDDAP server. We find the system simplifies data publication, hurdles in adapting CF conventions and ERDDAP for permafrost data remain, and technology cannot replace good practice. Our learning can inform organizations who collect, manage, or distribute permafrost data or those who manage large observation networks.

The halfway point for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) was marked in 2023, as set forth in the 2030 Agenda. Geospatial technologies have proven indispensable in assessing and tracking fundamental components of each of the 17 SDGs, including climatological and ecological trends, and changes and humanitarian crises and socio-economic impacts. However, gaps remain in the capacity for geospatial and related digital technologies, like AI, to provide a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of the complex and multi-factorial challenges delineated in the SDGs. Lack of progress toward these goals, and the immense implementation challenges that remain, call for inclusive and holistic approaches, coupled with transformative uses of digital technologies. This paper reviews transdisciplinary, holistic, and participatory approaches to address gaps in ethics and diversity in geospatial and related technologies and to meet the pressing need for bottom-up, community-driven initiatives. Small-scale, community-based initiatives are known to have a systemic and aggregate effect toward macro-economic and global environmental goals. Cybernetic systems thinking approaches are the conceptual framework investigated in this study, as these approaches suggest that a decentralized, polycentric system—for example, each community acting as one node in a larger, global system—has the resilience and capacity to create and sustain positive change, even if it is counter to top-down decisions and mechanisms. Thus, this paper will discuss how holistic systems thinking—societal, political, environmental, and economic choices considered in an interrelated context—may be central to building true resilience to climate change and creating sustainable development pathways. Traditional and Indigenous knowledge (IK) systems around the world hold holistic awareness of human-ecological interactions—practicable, reciprocal relationships developed over time as a cultural approach. This cultural holistic approach is also known as Systemic Literacy, which considers how systems function beyond “mechanical” aspects and include political, philosophical, psychological, emotional, relational, anthropological, and ecological dimensions. When Indigenous-led, these dimensions can be unified into participatory, community-centered conservation practices that support long-term human and environmental well-being. There is a growing recognition of the criticality of Indigenous leadership in sustainability practices, as well as that partnerships with Indigenous peoples and weaving knowledge systems, as a missing link to approaching global ecological crises. This review investigates the inequality in technological systems—the “digital divide” that further inhibits participation by communities and groups that retain knowledge of “place” and may offer the most transformative solutions. Following the review and synthesis, this study presents cybernetics as a bridge of understanding to Indigenous systems thinking. As non-Indigenous scholars, we hope that this study serves to foster informed, productive, and respectful dialogues so that the strength of diverse knowledges might offer whole-systems approaches to decision making that tackle wicked problems. Lastly, we discuss use cases of community-based processes and co-developed geospatial technologies, along with ethical considerations, as avenues toward enhancing equity and making advances in democratizing and decolonizing technology.

Over the past two decades, scientists, advocates, and communities have put considerable international effort into the development of a sustained Arctic observing system that can sufficiently monitor ongoing environmental and socio-economic change. Advances are slow due in part to a lack of nation-level coordination, with Canada being no exception. Canada needs a coordinated national strategy in support of sustained Arctic observations that will benefit all Canadians and the broader global community, advance Arctic system understanding, and support management and mitigation of the impacts of rapid Arctic transformation. This paper lays out a proposed framework for a coordinated national initiative in support of sustained Arctic observing that includes cross-sector and Indigenous co-developed and co-executed plan, plus an implementation strategy. Recommendations include: 1) establishing national teams (for observing, data, and infrastructure) to effectively deliver on our international obligations related to Arctic research, 2) supporting data sharing, and 3) ensuring sustained observations while also providing observational data and information in support of societal needs within Canada, including many identified in the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework and the National Inuit Strategy on Research.

This paper reports on the Hackathon Sessions organised at the Polar Data Forum IV (PDF IV) (20–24 September 2021), during which 351 participants from 50 different countries discussed collaboratively about the latest developments in polar data management. The 4th edition of the PDF hosted lively discussions on (i) best practices for polar data management, (ii) data policy, (ii) documenting data flows into aggregators, (iv) data interoperability, (v) polar federated search, (vi) semantics and vocabularies, (vii) Virtual Research Environments (VREs), and (viii) new polar technologies. This paper provides an overview of the organisational aspects of PDF IV and summarises the polar data objectives and outcomes by describing the conclusions drawn from the Hackathon Sessions.

The development of several large-, "continental"-scale ecosystem research infrastructures over recent decades has provided a unique opportunity in the history of ecological science. The Global Ecosystem Research Infrastructure (GERI) is an integrated network of analogous, but independent, site-based ecosystem research infrastructures (ERI) dedicated to better understand the function and change of indicator ecosystems across global biomes. Bringing together these ERIs, harmonizing their respective data and reducing uncertainties enables broader cross-continental ecological research. It will also enhance the research community capabilities to address current and anticipate future global scale ecological challenges. Moreover, increasing the international capabilities of these ERIs goes beyond their original design intent, and is an unexpected added value of these large national investments. Here, we identify specific global grand challenge areas and research trends to advance the ecological frontiers across continents that can be addressed through the federation of these cross-continental-scale ERIs.

Established and emerging observing technologies provide the potential for expanding our view and understanding of the many dimensions of the Arctic, including its physical, biological, and social domains. New sensors, platforms, survey tools, and a community-driven monitoring program are generating what is referred to as “big data,” a term used to describe not only the size of data resources but also the increasing speed of data collection and delivery, the many kinds of data, and the challenges of establishing the accuracy of these data streams. Without an appropriate system for managing data, observations are ephemeral, and their value is limited.

Arctic observing and data systems have been widely recognized as critical infrastructures to support decision making and understanding across sectors in the Arctic and globally. Yet due to broad and persistent issues related to coordination, deployment infrastructure and technology gaps, the Arctic remains among the most poorly observed regions on the planet from the standpoint of conventional observing systems. Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) was initiated in 2011 to address the persistent shortcomings in the coordination of Arctic observations that are maintained by its many national and organizational partners. SAON set forth a bold vision in its 2018 – 28 strategic plan to develop a roadmap for Arctic observing and data systems (ROADS) to specifically address a key gap in coordination efforts—the current lack of a systematic planning mechanism to develop and link observing and data system requirements and implementation strategies in the Arctic region. This coordination gap has hampered partnership development and investments toward improved observing and data systems. ROADS seeks to address this shortcoming through generating a systems-level view of observing requirements and implementation strategies across SAON’s many partners through its roadmap. A critical success factor for ROADS is equitable participation of Arctic Indigenous Peoples in the design and development process, starting at the process design stage to build needed equity. ROADS is both a comprehensive concept, building from a societal benefit assessment approach, and one that can proceed step-wise so that the most imperative Arctic observations—here described as shared Arctic variables (SAVs)—can be rapidly improved. SAVs will be identified through rigorous assessment at the beginning of the ROADS process, with an emphasis in that assessment on increasing shared benefit of proposed system improvements across a range of partnerships from local to global scales. The success of the ROADS process will ultimately be measured by the realization of concrete investments in and well-structured partnerships for the improved sustainment of Arctic observing and data systems in support of societal benefit.

Effective responses to rapid environmental change rely on observations to inform planning and decision-making. Reviewing literature from 124 programs across the globe and analyzing survey data for 30 Arctic community-based monitoring programs, we compare top-down, large-scale program driven approaches with bottom-up approaches initiated and steered at the community level. Connecting these two approaches and linking to Indigenous and local knowledge yields benefits including improved information products and enhanced observing program efficiency and sustainability. We identify core principles central to such improved links: matching observing program aims, scales, and ability to act on information; matching observing program and community priorities; fostering compatibility in observing methodology and data management; respect of Indigenous intellectual property rights and the implementation of free, prior, and informed consent; creating sufficient organizational support structures; and ensuring sustained community members’ commitment. Interventions to overcome challenges in adhering to these principles are discussed.

Environmental observing programs that are based on Indigenous and local knowledge increasingly use digital technologies. Digital platforms may improve data management in community-based monitoring (CBM) programs, but little is known about how their use translates into tangible results. Drawing on published literature and a survey of 18 platforms, we examine why and how digital platforms are used in CBM programs and illuminate potential challenges and opportunities. Digital platforms make it easy to collect, archive, and share CBM data, facilitate data use, and support understanding larger-scale environmental patterns through interlinking with other platforms. Digital platforms, however, also introduce new challenges, with implications for the sustainability of CBM programs and communities' abilities to maintain control of their own data. We expect that increased data access and strengthened technical capacity will create further demand within many communities for ethically developed platforms that aid in both local and larger-scale decision-making.

The dramatic changes occurring in the Arctic due to the global warming generate feedbacks on global circulation and midlatitude climate and, at the local scale, pose challenges to Arctic populations and infrastructures and threaten the Arctic fauna and flora. Observations in the Arctic are needed to understand the ongoing geophysical and socio-ecological processes and changes, to plan adaptation strategies, and to sustainably manage the environment. A joint effort from the scientific and societal communities is necessary to monitor relevant phenomena in such a vast and poorly accessible area of the globe. The integration of citizen and science observations is envisioned by the Sustaining Arctic Observing Networks (SAON) as a key element of the Roadmap for a comprehensive long-term pan-Arctic Observing and Data System (ROADS) that serves societal needs. Often, however, the different language and methodology adopted by scientific and non-scientific communities hamper the exchange and usability of the available observations. In the EU INTAROS project, metadata on community-based and scientific observing programs were collected using a common questionnaire in order to assess gaps and strengths in the observing systems. The assessment revealed that the community-based observations rarely belong to long-term sustained programs, and suffer from lack of long-term preservation strategies more severely than science-based observing systems. On the other hand, many science-based marine observations are collected only during the summer season, while community-based observations are less prone to temporal gaps. Community-based monitoring efforts can help increase observational coverage in space and time with often low-cost approaches, while also adding value through the introduction of holistic perspectives – such as Indigenous knowledge-based – into the observing process. Our analysis demonstrated that, despite the differences in method and language between community- and science-based programs, the adopted assessment methodology enables the comparison and, thus, the integration of the metadata (that e.g. describe frequency of observations, locations, types of variables observed etc.) pertaining to community and science-based observing systems.

A variety of mapping work has been done in collaboration with, or in relation to, Indigenous communities and organizations in the Bering Sea, Bering Strait region, and Barents Sea region. We outline Indigenous concerns related to mapping and make recommendations about future mapping work that would further empower Indigenous communities. Additional mapping work led by and done in collaboration with Indigenous communities, and focused on equity, capacity building, and appropriate methods is needed. A recognition of the value of Indigenous and Traditional Knowledge, including spatial information, will contribute to more effective and informed decision making.

<p>A consortium of polar data coordinating bodies has recently hosted a number of useful workshops and events to foster collaboration between individuals, institutions, projects and organizations. These events have built on polar data coordination efforts including progress made during the International Polar Year, focused workshops in 2016, 17, and 18, and three Polar Data Forum meetings (2013,15,19). &#160;</p><p>&#160;</p><p>These and other activities have identified a need for continued community development and detailed technical collaboration in order to advance Polar Data Management. Technical activity has centred on achieving federated search through the exchange of standardised, well formatted discovery metadata. This is an important first step towards an interconnected polar data system and important gaps and mitigation have been identified at the levels of standardisation, exchange protocols, and eventually semantic annotation of datasets.</p><p>&#160;</p><p>These activities have been and will continue to be organized by a group of coordination bodies including the IASC-SAON Arctic Data Committee, the Southern Ocean Observing System, Standing Committee on Antarctic Data Management, GEO Cold Regions Initiative, Polar View, Arctic Portal, ELOKA, Canadian Consortium on Arctic Data Interoperability, U.S. Inter-agency Arctic Research Policy Committee Arctic Data Sub-Team, and the WMO Global Cryosphere Watch.</p><p>&#160;</p><p>As a contribution to these international efforts, in January 2020, the European Union Horizon 2020 project CAPARDUS was established as a coordination and support action with the objective to establish a comprehensive framework for development, understanding and implementation of Arctic standards with focus on environmental topics and related data. The framework will integrate standards used by communities active in the Arctic and polar regions including research and services, Indigenous and local communities, commercial operators and governance bodies. Development of standards is important for many technologies and services (e.g. federated search) that can bring broad social and economic benefits within and beyond the Arctic region.</p><p>&#160;</p><p>In this presentation we first provide a synthesis of more than a decade and a half of activity and development in polar data management and interoperable data sharing.&#160; Results from this analysis reveal two primary areas of successful developments: i) social and organizational including data policy, building working relationships, and funding cyberinfrastructure ; ii) technical developments in federated search, semantic interoperability, and use of web services.&#160; Patterns, advancements and development gaps are identified and discussed.&#160; Secondly, we present an overview of the first quarter of activity under the CAPARDUS project, including a preliminary model aimed and enhancing appropriate levels of standardization in the polar data community.</p>