Sustainability Spotlight, July 2021 - dataARC: Human Ecodynamics of the North Atlantic
Climate and environments in the North Atlantic are changing rapidly and unpredictably, and residents are being forced to adapt in many ways. The dataARC Project's central aim is to foster transdisciplinary and collaborative research on long-term human-environment dynamics in this region in order to engage with these transformations.
Dr Rachel Opitz, Senior Lecturer in Spatial Archaeometry in UofG's School of Humanities, is a Co-Principal Investigator/Co-Project Developer on the dataARC project, which offers online tools and infrastructure to enable researchers from a broad range of disciplines to study human ecodynamics in the North Atlantic context. This supports a holistic approach to understanding the rapid social and environmental changes that occurred in the past, and the creation of digital tools for expanded capacity to engage other users, including students and Indigenous northern communities.
In bringing together data from archaeology, historic documents, climate science, and the humanities, dataARC enables critical reflection on current events, and provides a resource for resident communities who are being forced to adapt.
Working towards a more holistic understanding of the long-term and present-day dynamics of this region requires linking not only datasets but the broader domain knowledge and conceptual models developed by multiple disciplines. Investing in shared online cyberinfrastructure provides an opportunity to build and reinforce these links and to further new research directions.
The dataARC cyberinfrastructure project was made possible by the collaborative research efforts of the North Atlantic Biocultural Organization (NABO) and collaborators at research institutions across the US, UK, and Europe, and funded by two successful NSF awards (cyberNABO 1.0 and cyberNABO 2.0 - SMA 1519660 and 1637076).
Images:
Icelandic manuscript image: Courtesy of the National and University Library of Iceland, used with permission.
DataARC user interface image: The 'Why' section of the dataARC search tool interface allows users to interactively explore the connections between the data returned by a search, concepts to which the data are connected, and explanations of the connections provided by researchers.