ASLA 2017 Professional Research Award Winners / Giải thưởng ASLA 2017 Research Award

The climate, environment, demography, settlement patterns, and landscape of the Arctic are changing rapidly. This transformation has led to intense debates and extensive research regarding the future of the circumpolar north.  The research project “Fluid Territory: A Journey into Svalbard, Norway” uses an iterative logic of giving and receiving to explore the potential future of this hyper-networked space.  This is accomplished by illustrating how external influences, such as chemical pollution, tourism and resource extraction, impact the physical terrain and climate of Svalbard, and thus the migratory and habitation patterns of its marine and terrestrial organisms.  Conversely, the project also illustrates how the territorial agency of Svalbard, as a repository of cultural heritage and through institutions devoted to science and satellite monitoring, extends outward to influence the global community.  This study, conducted by a multi-national team of researchers, is noteworthy for its geographical extent, its innovative combination of cross-disciplinary information, its multi-scalar mapping techniques, and for the way it innovatively expands the future possibilities of the investigative terrain of landscape architecture.