Fall 2010 seminar series will define risk in Arctic coastal and offshore resource development; session 19 is Dec. 9

The purpose of this seminar series is to explore overarching concepts of assessment and mitigation of risks applied in different settings relevant for natural resource development. Potential questions addressed by speakers and in the discussion include:

• How can risk be evaluated and integrated into decision making?
• What can be learned about potential biases from cognition and decision science?
• What different paradigms or measures of risk are employed by different institutions?
• How can the decision process integrate different perceptions or understanding of risk by different stakeholders?

Each session will include two presentations, 30 minutes each, with the presenter appearing in person either at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), the UAF Lena Point Lab in Juneau (JNU) or the Barrow Arctic Research Center (BARC) in Barrow. For each of the talks, all four sites will be able to participate via teleconference, with the specific locations indicated below for each date.

For more information on the seminar series, please contact:

• Hajo Eicken, GI & IARC, UAF, hajo.eicken@gi.alaska.edu, (907) 474-7280
• Andrew Metzger, Dept. of Civil Engineering, UAF, atmetzger@alaska.edu
• Sharman Haley, ISER, UAA, afsh@uaa.alaska.edu

Session One: Seminar series introduction
Thursday, Sept. 16, 3 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Hajo Eicken, UAF (at UAF)
• Walt Spring, Bear Ice Technology/Shell: The international standard on Offshore Arctic Structures ISO 19906: What is it? When is it to be used? How does it incorporate risk? (at UAF)
  Additional statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium


Session Two
Friday, Sept. 24, 3 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Laura Tesch, Environmental Resources Management: Aleutians Risk Assessment Program (at UAA)
• David Barnes, UAF: Brief update on the Arctic Council's Emergency Prevention, Preparedness and Response Program (at UAF)
  Additional statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium
  

Session Three
Thursday, Oct. 14, 3 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Ben Greene and Robert Suydam, North Slope Borough (NSB): NSB perspectives on risk. Where to draw the line? Are we willing to gamble our Maktak to attract Big Oil? (at BARC)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium
  

Session Four
Thursday, Oct. 21, 3 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Elke Weber, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University: Understanding, communicating, and managing risks across stakeholders and cultures (at UAF)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium

Session Five
Friday, Oct. 22, 3 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Elke Weber, Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University: Understanding, communicating, and managing risks across stakeholders and cultures (at UAA)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, BARC Auditorium

Session Six
Friday, Nov. 5, 3 p.m.
Administration Bldg., Room 204

• Gabriel Wolken, State of Alaska, DNR-DGGS: Assessing natural hazards in Alaska's coastal communities in a changing climate (at UAF)
• Capt. Carl Uchytil, USCG, Topic to be announced (at UAS)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium

Session Seven
Thursday, Nov. 11, 3 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Andrew Metzger, UAF: Engineering aspects of ice-related risks to offshore structures (at UAF)
• Hajo Eicken, UAF: Assessing environmental risks in coastal and offshore resource development (at UAF)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium

Session Eight
Thursday, Nov. 18, 3-4:30 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Ira Rosen (Alaska DEC) and Tim Robertson (Nuka Research): How does the state assess and manage risks from oil and gas development activities? (Live in Anchorage)
  
• Lawson Brigham (UAF): Risk assessment in the context of the Arctic Marine Shipping Assessment and evolving International Maritime Organization Standards (Live in Fairbanks)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium

Session Nine
Thursday, Dec. 2, 3 p.m.
Administration Building, Room 204

• Fran Ulmer, UAA: Status report on the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Commission's work (at UAA)
• Sheila Selkregg (UAA): Cultural dissociation and risk exposure, Insights into critical decision making and loss of risk management commitment (at UAA)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium

Session Ten
Thursday, Dec. 9, 3 p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Room 307

• Summary discussion (at UAF with participation by all sites)
  Other statewide locations: UAF TBA, Juneau Lena Point Bldg 301, BARC Auditorium