Professor Wooik Choi, a professor at the Russian Institute and director of the Polar Research Center, received a contract for the ‘Russian Arctic Information Map Interface Construction and Utilization’ project from the Polar Research Center under the Korea Institute of Ocean Science and Technology in September 2024. The purpose of this project is to build an integrated Arctic information system that can secure and monitor the latest data on socio-cultural, economic, geographic, political, and academic research in the Arctic Russian region based on the information map interface (GIS). The Arctic is one of Korea’s future growth areas, and it is necessary to periodically collect, monitor, and analyze related data on changes in economic and social conditions in general in order to advance into the international stage and develop future industries beyond the Arctic science field.

This project was planned to meet the demand for an information map service for research and education purposes that can help domestic non-Arctic experts or prospective experts understand the current status of the Arctic Russian region and discover potential participation projects, amid the restrictions on Arctic Russian exchanges due to the Russia-Ukraine situation. This project is linked to the project to ‘provide visualized population, industry, and economic information by Arctic region through a Korean-style Arctic information map’ as part of the ‘Establishment of a National and Social Cooperation Channel’ in the 1st Basic Plan for the Promotion of Polar Activities (2022) of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.

[Arctic Information Map Interface DB Configuration Diagram]