Researchers from the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) have chosen Bethel for a project looking at the economic impacts of changes in land, sea, and air transportation over time.
Matt Hegland is a researcher with UAA’s College of Engineering. He visited Bethel this week to complete in-person surveys and get the word out about the project. He said that it’s the first of its kind for Alaska.
“We looked at 2003 to 2023 … at the unemployment rate and the income, and we gathered data on flights, and barges, and even the ice road to kind of look at how it impacts the economy,” Hegland said…