A view of Tromsdalen from TromsøJanuary in Tromsø was a busy month for Arctic researchers and organisations participating in the Arctic Frontiers Conference from January 21-25th. But many key Arctic dataholders and users made time to attend the Arctic Atlas dataholders meeting on the 23rd of January, hosted by the University of the Arctic and the Arctic Council. The meeting was held to discuss and facilitate participation in a project that will bring together Arctic environmental and social data into one location on the web.

 

The meeting was attended by 25 participants from the Arctic Council, Arctic Council working groups, government, industry and other non-governmental organisations. The meeting began with a presentation of the history and purpose of the Arctic Online Atlas by University of the Arctic President, Lars Kullerud. Previous attempts at such an undertaking were discussed as well as the possibility of creating a dataholder/user consortium to guide the project in the right direction.

 

The discussion that followed identified concerns and support for the project. Issues of concern were primarily those of quality, maintenance and ownership of the data to be housed or displayed on the Atlas. Finding ways to accommodate different users such as students, decision makers and industry was also raised as an important issue. View of the Arctic Cathedral from the city centre

 

Kullerud concluded the meeting by inviting all participants to join the initial consortium to continue the discussion and progress in the creation of the Arctic Online Atlas.