MURMANSK, March 27. /TASS/. The Murmansk Region may become the Russian center of glaciology, the science of studying natural ice, as the region has an extensive scientific base to study Arctic soil conditions, the Arctic Resource Center Foundation's COB Oleg Volkov told TASS during the International Arctic Forum.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin has ordered to create a permafrost monitoring system to model and forecast climate change to prevent negative impacts and to favor trouble-free operation of infrastructures in permafrost areas - more than half of Russia's territory. The Murmansk Region (the Kola Peninsula) will be one of the first Russian regions where the system will be created and used.
"According to the forum participants, the state permafrost monitoring system will help prevent the destruction of transport infrastructures, as well as structures due to the degradation of permafrost soils throughout the Russian Arctic Zone. Murmansk plays a special role in the process of its creation. It may become not just the city where the process of creating permafrost monitoring has begun, but may become a center of glaciology, because the Murmansk Arctic University and the Kola Research Center, study Arctic soil conditions," Oleg Volkov said.
"The expert community agrees that both the background monitoring system, created by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (the Russian Academy of Sciences) and the geotechnical monitoring system should be managed from one center and should complement each other to obtain correct and accurate forecasts of climate change and permafrost melting," he added.
About the forum
The sixth International Arctic Forum is being held in the Murmansk Region for the first time. The Forum serves as a platform for discussing the socio-economic development of the Arctic territories, including multilateral strategies for how to harness the region’s vast resources.
A key focus is the Northern Sea Route’s expansion, coinciding with the 500th anniversary of its exploration.
TASS is the information partner of the forum.