Strategic environment analysis for Arctic collaborative governance based on data-driven triple bottom line perspective.

Abstract

Collaborative governance is essential to address complex Arctic issues beyond the capacity of any single country. The strategic environment analysis is critical to promote collaborative governance. This study quantitatively analyzes the strategic environment for Arctic collaborative governance using a data-driven approach from a triple bottom line perspective. Nineteen evaluation indicators were determined, covering economic, environmental, and social aspects. The Arctic Council members and affiliates (21 countries) collected data associated with these indicators during 2012-2021 and analyzed by the Euclidean distance and grey correlation-based technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution model to obtain the performance values of these countries. Results indicate the correlations among the three aspects are weak, suggesting room for integrative development. In addition, the high correlation coefficients of performance across these aspects among the countries indicate the great potential for Arctic collaborative governance, which may be limited by geopolitical factors.