Webinar Announcement
Thaw Settlement Susceptibility Mapping for Roads on Permafrost
Permafrost Discovery Gateway
13 February 2025
9:00 a.m. AKST
To attend, at the time of the webinar, go to:
https://woodwellclimate-org.zoom.us/j/89487435072?pwd=pH5RseiYFmJ7DzK0N…
The Permafrost Discovery Gateway (PDG) announces their next monthly webinar series, titled Thaw Settlement Susceptibility Mapping for Roads on Permafrost. This webinar will take place Thursday, 13 February 2025 at 9:00 a.m. AKST. The webinar series addresses using big geospatial data and remote sensing for community planning applications across permafrost regions.
Webinar Abstract:
Speaker: Johanna Scheer, Umeå University, Sweden
Permafrost thaw induces terrain instabilities and hazards that severely threaten the integrity of roads and, by extension, the socioeconomic development of Arctic communities. The research aimed at identifying paved road sections currently susceptible to permafrost thaw settlements and their damages, in Ilulissat, West Greenland. To this end, we developed and implemented a Thaw Settlement Susceptibility Index (TSSI) and a mapping framework relying upon the qualitative assessment of hazard sources, infrastructure vulnerability, and impacts of permafrost-induced failures. The evaluation was principally based on the combination of geotechnical data (including 1127 digitized borehole logs and a high-resolution inventory of road conditions) with remotely sensed ground surface displacement maps. The team found that 39% of the roads assessed in Ilulissat were established on highly hazardous terrains, characterized by the presence of fine-grained frost-susceptible sediments, severe water ponding, and/or snow ploughing accumulations. Respectively, 9 and 3% of the road network were evaluated as vulnerable to thaw settlements and severely impacted. Overall, the team showed that 12% of paved roads established on sediments were highly susceptible to permafrost thaw settlements and may consequently require greater resources to be maintained. The study illustrated the potential of hazard and susceptibility maps, produced at the community scale, to support infrastructure risk management and optimization of local resources. Future work will be dedicated to assessing the susceptibility of existing roads and unbuilt terrains to permafrost thaw settlements under projected climate scenarios.
To attend, at the time of the webinar, go to: https://woodwellclimate-org.zoom.us/j/89487435072?pwd=pH5RseiYFmJ7DzK0N…
For questions, contact:
Emily Longano, Permafrost Discovery Gateway
Email: ealongano [at] gmail.com