GCSE Geography | Challenges in Svalbard (Cold Environments 4)

Svalbard is located in the Arctic Ocean. It is part of Norway, and is is the most northerly permanently inhabited island group in the world. Svalbard is a mixture of polar and tundra - around 60% is covered in glaciers so would be described as a polar region, and the rest is tundra - although most of that land is also permanently frozen. The environment is too harsh for trees or crops to grow.

The harsh conditions in Svalbard make life very challenging.

Extreme cold in Svalbard

Winter is bitterly cold in Svalbard. Temperatures fall below -30°C during winter in the main town of Longyearbyen, however it can get much colder if you travel further into the northern glacial regions.

In these freezing conditions it is dangerous to work outside meaning that people have to dress in several thick layers of clothing. This can hinder manual work outdoors and tasks can take far more time to complete than usual (particularly when wearing very thick gloves), but without properly insulated clothing people are at serious risk of frostbite where exposure to freezing temperatures causes damage to skin and tissue. Frostbite can affect any part of your body, but the extremities, such as the hands, feet, ears, nose and lips, are most likely to be affected.

Building in Svalbard

To support domestic and industrial needs lots of building work has taken place in Svalbard, such as houses, shops and offices. There have also been many forms of construction taking place, such as providing infrastructure like roads (which also need a lot of maintenance in the extreme cold), the expansion of harbour facilities to accommodate more tourist cruise ships and larger fishing vessels, and constructing buildings and mining operations to enable the extraction of coal.

Working in construction mainly involves working outside in the extreme cold. Due to the high latitudes, hours of daylight are also very limited during the winter. This means that the majority of construction work has to take place during the summer months.

Building on permafrost is also difficult. When the ground is frozen it provides a really stable foundation for buildings, but if the top layer starts to melt it could cause serious subsidence issues, with roads and buildings cracking or collapsing. Therefore any construction project has to ensure that the permafrost is protected from melting, which makes building less straightforward and more expensive.

Providing services in Svalbard

Despite its remoteness, Svalbard is part of Norway, which is one of the most affluent countries of the world, and is also where most of Svalbard's tourists come from. So residents and visitors expect comfortable living conditions - they want to live or stay in buildings that are properly heated and want services such as sanitation, reliable electricity and hot showers to help them thaw when they have been out in the cold all day.

In the UK we use underground pipes to provide essential water and sewage services to buildings, however in Svalbard these have to be constructed above ground, with water heated to stop it from freezing, and pipes bursting. They need to be raised slightly off the ground and well insulated to prevent them thawing the permafrost, but also to enable regular maintenance.

Inaccessibility in Svalbard

As an island group, Svalbard is one of the most remote places in Europe and can only be reached by sea or air. Many of the islands are completely inaccessible. The main town of Longyearbyen has a small airport where flights to and from Norway and Russia, arrive and depart, with small aircraft used to connect to some of the other islands. As well as having the only airport and port, Longyearbyen is also the only place with a reasonable road network - there are 50km of roads here, but these do not extend to outlying communities. Instead people tend to rely on snowmobiles to get around, which is why there are so many of them here.

The few roads there are, are constructed in a basic fashion - either made from dirt or gravel and raised up above the ground surface - making them relatively cheap and easy to build and to maintain.