As the ground shifts beneath their feet, officials in Canada’s Nunavut turn to creative engineering to save scarce homes—and plan for a future built on bedrock.

In Russia, cities are collapsing—whole buildings sagging and crumbling, roads twisting and bulging through the tundra. In Greenland, forest fires edge ever closer to towns perched on once-icy landscapes, and some towns are running out of water. And in Alaska, entire villages are being relocated because the land upon which they’re built is no long trustworthy.

All across the North, the very ground is changing, and the buildings and roads built upon the thawing permafrost are shifting and cracking. Continue reading at CityLab, Wired, and elsewhere.