This March, York University is recognizing and participating in SDG Month Canada, a national initiative to advance collaboration, awareness and engagement around the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
Throughout the month, YFile will present a series of articles that highlight contributions from York University and its efforts to advance the SDGs. These stories reflect the people, research and initiatives that make the University an international leader in sustainability.
There is a term in the sciences called "helicopter research." It refers to the practice of researchers coming to low-income or marginalized communities, conducting field studies, gathering data with no local collaboration and then leaving without providing any benefits to the local community.
Jennifer Korosi
Jennifer Korosi is a professor of geography and environmental science in York University's Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change. She studies inland waters to understand the impacts of environmental change and frequently works with and near northern and Indigenous communities and has seen how helicopter research can exclude local voices. "In the north, local communities weren't really involved in the research and didn't feel like a part of the process," she says.
This lack of collaboration could be both a research and human oversight, as those experiencing the effects of climate change can share valuable knowledge and benefit from the findings.
Growing awareness for the need to partner with local communities, however, has led to a notable shift. "There's been a big push in northern research over the last decade to change the way we work," Korosi says.
Korosi has been a key part of that push, most recently through her study of how climate change affects permafrost - ground that remains frozen for two or more years.
Over half of Canada's land mass is underlain by some form of permafrost - including in northern and Indigenous communities - which plays a critical role in infrastructure, as well as water volume and quality. Climate shifts have led to more frequent thawing, which can have serious consequences: buildings may be condemned as foundations subside, roads can crack and require highway rerouting, Indigenous populations may no longer be able to access hunting or fishing grounds, sediment can enter water bodies supplying drinking water and greenhouse gas emissions can increase.
To better understand what Korosi says isn't just a northern or Canadian issue but a global one, she has partnered with the Dehcho Collaborative on Permafrost.
The initiative is named after a region in the Northwest Territories where thawing has led to pronounced change, as it is one of the most rapidly warming areas on Earth. The collaboration aims to pursue much-needed information about permafrost to mobilize knowledge, develop predictive tools and strategies, and enable more effective responses.
A key component of achieving that goal is the integration of Indigenous knowledge with scientific investigation through the involvement of Korosi and other academic researchers, First Nations in the Dehcho region, a field station called Scotty Creek Research Station and others.
"We realized we had a shared goal: to understand what permafrost means for the lands and waters of the Dehcho and to work together to tackle these issues from a holistic perspective - putting not just community engagement at the forefront, but community leadership," she says.
Read the full story originally featured in YFile, York University's community newsletter.
