The Alaska Innovation Landscape Network (AILN) is one of several regional landscapes selected for development as part of the National Innovation Landscapes Network (NILN). AILN is led by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center’s Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) and focuses on resilience.
Other regional innovation landscapes are denoted on the "Current Regional Landscapes" image and are led by either DoD or USGS. "Map of Current Mission Threats by Region" image depicts the known accelerated ecological changes occurring by region.
Alaska is experiencing and is projected to increasingly experience many of these including permafrost thaw, sea level rise, and wildfire. Ecosystem transformations are occurring faster than most federal agencies can currently manage and adapt.
Although mission planners, engineers, and natural resource managers of military lands have identified needs to adapt to ecosystem change, no formal process for continual needs assessment and technology development exists to accelerate adaptation. This slows the development of innovation that responds to management and operational needs.
NILN aims to bridge this gap and sustain co-production between the researchers producing new science/technology and the natural resource managers responsible for implementing adaptation techniques.
For more information on AILN, please click here or contact Michelle Michaels at michelle.l.michaels@erdc.dren.mil.
For more information on NILN, please click here.