Modelling needs assessment for social adaptation to climate change in Siberia

Despite the common expectation that climate change may make Siberia a warm heaven, this would not be good for local people. Surprisingly the people of Siberia do rely on the winter cold. Warming may be a serious challenge here. Climate change threatens Siberian forests, lakes and permafrost. In the region where landscapes are unstable this implies the risks of losing the traditional means of subsistence, at least for a while. Social adaptation to climate change is becoming an urgent issue, as the first signs of warming are becoming noticeable to local people. This article reports an attempt to explore the gaps between the state-of-the-art and desired progress in environmental modelling with respect to the integrated assessment of the climate change impacts on Siberia.