Water resources are vital to Alaska’s North Slope, supporting ecosystem functions as well as domestic and industrial human activities. Although the North Slope has a semi-arid climate, it hosts vast wetland complexes as a result of the nearly impermeable underlying permafrost. As much as 40% of the coastal plain is covered with water, and more than 80% is classified as wetlands. These wetlands support an array of tundra vegetation, fish and wildlife. A significant industrial water use on Alaska’s North Slope is ice infrastructure, which has long been used as a cost-effective means of winter transportation across the tundra and to support exploratory drilling sites. The North Slope Decision Support System (DSS) is currently under development as a technology in support of oil and gas exploration and development that explicitly considers optimal water use, direct and cumulative environmental impacts, and multiple objectives and values among stakeholders. The project’s climate and hydrologic research effort consists of three foci: data analysis, modelling investigations, and climate change impact assessment. The central question being addressed with data analysis is to what extent can existing observational data characterize North Slope hydroclimatology? The modelling effort aims to understand how climate and terrain interact at the landscape scale to affect local hydrology and water resources. Finally, the data analysis and modelling effort will be combined with future climate scenarios to address how future climate can be expected to impact water resources and winter exploration on the North Slope?