A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes
In response to increasing Arctic temperatures, ice-rich permafrost landscapes are undergoing rapid changes. In permafrost lowlands, polygonal ice wedges are especially prone to degradation. Melting of ice wedges results in deepening troughs and the transition from low-centered to high-centered ice-w...
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Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
2021
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Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/1/rettelbach_2021_iwd_graph_analysis.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163098 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.3e73e654-5bc1-421e-9b87-7d81fa779938 |
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:54439 2024-03-24T09:00:12+00:00 A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes Rettelbach, Sara Tabea Langer, Moritz Nitze, Ingmar Jones, Benjamin M Helm, Veit Freytag, Johann-Christoph Grosse, Guido 2021-08-26 application/pdf https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/1/rettelbach_2021_iwd_graph_analysis.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163098 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.3e73e654-5bc1-421e-9b87-7d81fa779938 unknown Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/1/rettelbach_2021_iwd_graph_analysis.pdf Rettelbach, S. T. , Langer, M. orcid:0000-0002-2704-3655 , Nitze, I. orcid:0000-0002-1165-6852 , Jones, B. M. , Helm, V. orcid:0000-0001-7788-9328 , Freytag, J. C. and Grosse, G. orcid:0000-0001-5895-2141 (2021) A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes , Remote Sensing, 13 (16) . doi:10.3390/rs13163098 <https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163098> , hdl:10013/epic.3e73e654-5bc1-421e-9b87-7d81fa779938 EPIC3Remote Sensing, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 13(16), ISSN: 2072-4292 Article peerRev 2021 ftawi https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163098 2024-02-27T09:55:26Z In response to increasing Arctic temperatures, ice-rich permafrost landscapes are undergoing rapid changes. In permafrost lowlands, polygonal ice wedges are especially prone to degradation. Melting of ice wedges results in deepening troughs and the transition from low-centered to high-centered ice-wedge polygons. This process has important implications for surface hydrology, as the connectivity of such troughs determines the rate of drainage for these lowland landscapes. In this study, we present a comprehensive, modular, and highly automated workflow to extract, to represent, and to analyze remotely sensed ice-wedge polygonal trough networks as a graph (i.e., network structure). With computer vision methods, we efficiently extract the trough locations as well as their geomorphometric information on trough depth and width from high-resolution digital elevation models and link these data within the graph. Further, we present and discuss the benefits of graph analysis algorithms for characterizing the erosional development of such thaw-affected landscapes. Based on our graph analysis, we show how thaw subsidence has progressed between 2009 and 2019 following burning at the Anaktuvuk River fire scar in northern Alaska, USA. We observed a considerable increase in the number of discernible troughs within the study area, while simultaneously the number of disconnected networks decreased from 54 small networks in 2009 to only six considerably larger disconnected networks in 2019. On average, the width of the troughs has increased by 13.86%, while the average depth has slightly decreased by 10.31%. Overall, our new automated approach allows for monitoring ice-wedge dynamics in unprecedented spatial detail, while simultaneously reducing the data to quantifiable geometric measures and spatial relationships. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Ice permafrost wedge* Alaska Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Arctic Remote Sensing 13 16 3098 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) |
op_collection_id |
ftawi |
language |
unknown |
description |
In response to increasing Arctic temperatures, ice-rich permafrost landscapes are undergoing rapid changes. In permafrost lowlands, polygonal ice wedges are especially prone to degradation. Melting of ice wedges results in deepening troughs and the transition from low-centered to high-centered ice-wedge polygons. This process has important implications for surface hydrology, as the connectivity of such troughs determines the rate of drainage for these lowland landscapes. In this study, we present a comprehensive, modular, and highly automated workflow to extract, to represent, and to analyze remotely sensed ice-wedge polygonal trough networks as a graph (i.e., network structure). With computer vision methods, we efficiently extract the trough locations as well as their geomorphometric information on trough depth and width from high-resolution digital elevation models and link these data within the graph. Further, we present and discuss the benefits of graph analysis algorithms for characterizing the erosional development of such thaw-affected landscapes. Based on our graph analysis, we show how thaw subsidence has progressed between 2009 and 2019 following burning at the Anaktuvuk River fire scar in northern Alaska, USA. We observed a considerable increase in the number of discernible troughs within the study area, while simultaneously the number of disconnected networks decreased from 54 small networks in 2009 to only six considerably larger disconnected networks in 2019. On average, the width of the troughs has increased by 13.86%, while the average depth has slightly decreased by 10.31%. Overall, our new automated approach allows for monitoring ice-wedge dynamics in unprecedented spatial detail, while simultaneously reducing the data to quantifiable geometric measures and spatial relationships. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rettelbach, Sara Tabea Langer, Moritz Nitze, Ingmar Jones, Benjamin M Helm, Veit Freytag, Johann-Christoph Grosse, Guido |
spellingShingle |
Rettelbach, Sara Tabea Langer, Moritz Nitze, Ingmar Jones, Benjamin M Helm, Veit Freytag, Johann-Christoph Grosse, Guido A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes |
author_facet |
Rettelbach, Sara Tabea Langer, Moritz Nitze, Ingmar Jones, Benjamin M Helm, Veit Freytag, Johann-Christoph Grosse, Guido |
author_sort |
Rettelbach, Sara Tabea |
title |
A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes |
title_short |
A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes |
title_full |
A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes |
title_fullStr |
A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes |
title_sort |
quantitative graph-based approach to monitoring ice-wedge trough dynamics in polygonal permafrost landscapes |
publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/1/rettelbach_2021_iwd_graph_analysis.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163098 https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.3e73e654-5bc1-421e-9b87-7d81fa779938 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic Ice permafrost wedge* Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic Ice permafrost wedge* Alaska |
op_source |
EPIC3Remote Sensing, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI), 13(16), ISSN: 2072-4292 |
op_relation |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/54439/1/rettelbach_2021_iwd_graph_analysis.pdf Rettelbach, S. T. , Langer, M. orcid:0000-0002-2704-3655 , Nitze, I. orcid:0000-0002-1165-6852 , Jones, B. M. , Helm, V. orcid:0000-0001-7788-9328 , Freytag, J. C. and Grosse, G. orcid:0000-0001-5895-2141 (2021) A Quantitative Graph-Based Approach to Monitoring Ice-Wedge Trough Dynamics in Polygonal Permafrost Landscapes , Remote Sensing, 13 (16) . doi:10.3390/rs13163098 <https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163098> , hdl:10013/epic.3e73e654-5bc1-421e-9b87-7d81fa779938 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163098 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
13 |
container_issue |
16 |
container_start_page |
3098 |
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1794400038138413056 |