Assessing Socio-Economic Impacts of Climate Change in the Arctic through Geoinformatics: the contribution of EO-PERSIST project

In the context of a rapidly changing climate, there is a growing need to assess the impacts of climate change on natural systems, infrastructure, and human activities. Arctic regions are particularly vulnerable, as climate-driven changes extend beyond environmental degradation to significantly affect multiple socioeconomic dimensions. Therefore, there is an increasing need for holistic frameworks capable of capturing and analysing the socioeconomic impacts of climate change on local Arctic communities. In this regard, recent advances in geoinformation technologies - particularly Earth Observation (EO), cloud computing, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and WebGIS platforms - offer unprecedented opportunities for Arctic climate change research. Nevertheless, a notable gap remains in existing methodological approaches for the effective integration of geoinformatics with socioeconomic studies. This study aims to provide an overview of the EO-PERSIST project, an EU-funded project under the MSCA Staff Exchanges scheme, which aims at developing a cloud-based geospatial platform for understanding the socioeconomic impacts of climate change on Arctic communities. In addition, this study presents the proposed methodological frameworks integrating socioeconomic and geoinformation data developed under EO-PERSIST project, alongside key results from the socioeconomic modeling and the project’s Use Cases. Overall, this work highlights the need for an interdisciplinary and integrated approach that combines EO data, geospatial technologies, and socioeconomic analysis to support informed decision-making in Arctic regions. The EO-PERSIST geospatial platform contributes to this effort by providing key research outputs and methodological approaches that support adaptation strategies and policy development, ultimately enhancing resilience in Arctic permafrost environments.

Keywords: GIS; Earth Observation; Geoinformatics; EO-PERSIST, Cloud Platform, Arctic, Socioeconomic Impact; Acknowledgement The present research study is supported by the project “EO-PERSIST”, funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program (HORIZON-MSCA-2021-SE-01-01, under grant agreement no. 101086386