Building Local & Indigenous Knowledge Systems (Building LINKS): Community-Led Environment & Health Surveillance for Adaptation

Short-Term Research Objectives:The Research Team will work with Inuit, community governments, and end-users from across the Circumpolar North to:1.Collaboratively identify indicators that are locally-relevant and important to Inuit, policy makers, industry, and scientists for environment and health surveillance; 2.Design and implement an active and integrative community-based and community-led sentinel surveillance system to track, attribute, and respond to environment-health outcomes in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut; 3.Co-develop an Environment-Health Survey to identify and track environment-health impacts; and4.Characterize the distribution, magnitude, risk factors, and seasonality of a wide-range of environmental determinants of physical and mental health.Long-Term Research Objectives:1.Mobilize environment-health data from the surveillance system to develop and pilot sustainable, locally-appropriate, and culturally-relevant response strategies that enhance community health and resilience;2.Provide a feasibility study for Nunatsiavut Government to support the development of an on-going Nunatsiavut-wide environment-health survey; and 3.Work with Indigenous colleagues, health stakeholders, and decision-makers across the Canadian Arctic to identify opportunities to pilot and scale-up the survey system.Short-Term Knowledge-to-Action Objectives:1.Train Inuit representatives to implement and oversee the active surveillance program and survey; 2.Identify and monitor early-warning signs for environment-sensitive health events; 3.Inform the development of effective and timely response plans for environment-sensitive health events; and4.Enhance and expand the capacity of individuals, communities, health professionals, and decision-makers to maintain and use a community-based health surveillance and response system. Long-term Knowledge-to-Action Objectives:1.Improve individual, household, and community resilience and adaptive capacities to various stressors, including health, as well as climatic and environmental change in the partner communities and across the North; 2.Inform evidence-based decision making across the North by bringing together communities, researchers, and decision-makers to develop strategies and sustainable networks for long-term surveillance, response, and evidence-based decision-making; and3.Scale up the surveillance system to other sentinel communities across the North.