Environment-framed networks: seasonal reconfiguration of service accessibility in Arctic transport systems

While transport accessibility is an integral part of quality of life, its value does not remain constant over time. In practice, access to services can be crucial, especially in the case of medical services and transport hubs. This is particularly evident in remote regions such as the Arctic, where settlements are highly interdependent. In harsh climatic conditions, transport links become vulnerable to disruption, and strong seasonal fluctuations significantly alter the structure of the network. On the other hand, in the Arctic, unlike in more temperate climates, the changing seasons also bring new opportunities, such as ice roads. Traditional frameworks of service accessibility assessment, however, rarely take into account such climate-induced network reconfiguration. To study this phenomenon in detail, we propose an Environment-Framed Network (EFN) model for analyzing seasonal resilience of service accessibility in Arctic settlement systems under climate-constrained transport connectivity. EFN represents transport as a temperature-dependent backbone and models network layers as service-specific population flows, enabling explicit treatment of environment-driven link existence. Simulations across four Arctic regions reveal threshold-driven seasonal reconfigurations: up to 40% of settlements switch service providers, and 15–20% become temporarily isolated for up to 2–4 months during seasonal transitions. Despite strong regional heterogeneity, these dynamics are consistent and governed by the instability of seasonal transport modes. The results show that resilience in climate-dependent regions is determined primarily by the stability of service catchments, rather than by static network connectivity.