Stig (30) Has Researched Snow in Svalbard for Four Years: “I Don’t Even Ski!”

Stig Andreas Johannessen, 30, is the first person to complete a doctoral defence within Arctic Security, a field newly added at UNIS (the University Centre in Svalbard). High North News interviewed him for its series of Arctic scientist profiles. His research examined how Longyearbyen handles climate-linked hazards, including avalanches and slush flows. After the defence this fall, he moved to Trondheim and holds a postdoctoral post in sociology at NTNU, working on algorithms and artificial intelligence, among other things.

Johannessen is from Stavanger. His undergraduate studies were in comparative politics at the University of Bergen, and he took his master's in societal security at the University of Stavanger. He spent six months on Svalbard during the master's, and a preparedness course there gave him his first idea of doing a PhD. He applied to UNIS after graduating, heard nothing and began psychology studies, then got an interview two days before Christmas and was offered the position. He returned in 2021, working with the economics and management faculty at NTNU. He had no clear interest in climate beforehand.

He describes Longyearbyen's long-term measures as moving housing units, building avalanche fences and snow fences, and installing slope stabilisation nets. Short-term measures are road closures and evacuations. He found three kinds of local knowledge about snow: situational, bodily (from walking the same slopes repeatedly) and a synthetic kind that joins both with formal knowledge. He also compared evacuation communication in Svalbard, Honningsvåg, Rauma and Uummannaq. He says all four rely on scientific monitoring, communication and relocation. Rauma and Uummannaq have long-settled families, while Longyearbyen has high turnover.

Johannessen says Norway spent about NOK 350 million on avalanche management in Svalbard after the large avalanches of 2015 and 2017, which no other Norwegian municipality has seen. He reports informant fatigue in Longyearbyen, and all his informants eventually moved away. Telenor Svalbard helped the project. He says some locals see UNIS as an ivory tower. He does not ski, and one dissertation chapter jokes about not wanting to talk about snow. He teaches at UNIS for one week each school year.