New web-based tool for ice-road planning

The University of Alaska Fairbanks, Texas A&M University and consultancy company Atkins Global have developed a new web-based tool for planning the use of water resources for ice-road construction on Alaska’s North Slope. Termed the North Slope Decision Support System, or NSDSS, and available free of charge over the Internet, the tool will assist in the planning of an ice road by consolidating necessary information, modeling the outcomes of ice-road construction and narrowing the choices of possible ice-road routes, according to an announcement issued by the developers of the tool.

“The tool was developed in coordination with industry, agencies, municipalities and the research community through a series of four workshops held between 2008 and 2012,” the announcement says.

The tool and its associated documentation, located at http://nsdss.ine.uaf.edu,includes an ice-road planning module for optimizing route selection; a modeling function that enables the prediction of the impact of ice road construction on North Slope lake water; a function for the publication of modeling results, lake bathymetry and water quality observations to a database; and a means of database access for accessing and exploring information such as meteorological data and modeling results, the announcement says.

—Alan Bailey