Senior design projects are an engineering students’ rite of passage, a chance to apply four years of classroom knowledge to a real-world project. We, as civil engineering students, could choose any type of structure in any location. While our classmates decided to focus on projects within the city of our university, Columbia University in the New York City, our group decided to turn our focus to rural Alaska.
As global climate change has worsened, thawing permafrost, and advancing waters have slowly eroded the coastline, washing away critical infrastructure and threatening homes along Alaskan rivers. This is particularly true for Newtok, a small village located on the Ningliq River in Southwest Alaska. In 2003, an agreement for managed retreat was made for townspeople to resettle by river to higher ground several miles away in Mertarvik. It wasn’t until 2019 that the first residents arrived in this new town, even though there is no functioning sewer system and part of the school has been torn down for safety concerns. As a complete greenfield development, Mertarvik requires all new infrastructure to be built, including an air landing strip, a landfill, an evacuation center, and a school.
Our senior design project at Columbia University focuses on the complete design of a new K-12 school building, including civil, structural, and water resources engineering. Our design is 24,000 square foot, two story structure that includes a 4,000 square foot library space. Also included is a 12,500 square foot gymnasium building with a kitchen and cafeteria. The gym will further double as a community center for events such basketball games and dances, an important aspect of rural Alaskan life. We kept in mind traditional engineering aspects like structural safety and stability of the structures and overall cost and time to build, in addition to location-specific aspects like permafrost. A unique feature is the pile foundation as opposed to a traditional concrete foundation. The entire school sits above to the ground so that the foundation does not move as the ground freezes and thaws.
Engineering plays a crucial role in managed retreat due to climate change, a phenomenon that not only affects the village of Newtok but will affect communities around the world. Globally, an estimated 1.4 billion will have to move due to rising seas by 2060. The imminent rise in sea levels poses a profound threat to coastal cities globally. This work can change the entire framework to how we approach managed retreat and climate infrastructure. By centering community and establishing a framework that is rooted in Indigenous knowledge, we ensured that our building reflects the cultural identity and values of the community it serves.
It was an incredible honor to work and develop this design. Through a multidisciplinary approach encompassing structural engineering, geotechnical analysis, water resources, and construction management, we were able to design a robust and resilient school. We recognize that our work in designing infrastructure for Mertarvik is just one step in a larger movement towards creating a more equitable and sustainable world through infrastructure.