Arctic Port Development

Abstract

Melting Arctic sea ice, shore ice, and permafrost are changing costs and benefits to transport routes between Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and more generally, for maritime economic activity in the Arctic. We investigate the potential for development of Arctic ports from a logistics (demand) and an infrastructural (supply) point of view that directly incorporates local concerns. This approach broadens the scope of the discussion from existing analyses that focus primarily on the ways in which global forces, exerted through resource extraction or trans-polar shipping, impact the Arctic.