Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada
Roads constructed on permafrost can have a significant impact on the surrounding environment, potentially inducing permafrost degradation. These impacts arise from factors such as snow accumulation near the road, which affects the soil's thermal and hydrological regime, and road dust that decre...
Published in: | The Cryosphere |
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Copernicus Publications
2023
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Online Access: | https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/1/Hammar_etal_2023.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/5357/2023/ https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.69ffcd98-8b84-4cb0-a15a-7a5389e24d22 |
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ftawi:oai:epic.awi.de:58203 2024-02-11T10:05:20+01:00 Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada Hammar, Jennika Grünberg, Inge Kokelj, Steven V van der Sluijs, Jurjen Boike, Julia 2023-12-18 application/pdf https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/1/Hammar_etal_2023.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/5357/2023/ https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.69ffcd98-8b84-4cb0-a15a-7a5389e24d22 unknown Copernicus Publications https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/1/Hammar_etal_2023.pdf Hammar, J. , Grünberg, I. orcid:0000-0002-5748-8102 , Kokelj, S. V. , van der Sluijs, J. and Boike, J. orcid:0000-0002-5875-2112 (2023) Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada , The Cryosphere, 17 (12), pp. 5357-5372 . doi:10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023> , hdl:10013/epic.69ffcd98-8b84-4cb0-a15a-7a5389e24d22 EPIC3The Cryosphere, Copernicus Publications, 17(12), pp. 5357-5372, ISSN: 1994-0416 Article isiRev 2023 ftawi https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 2024-01-22T00:23:15Z Roads constructed on permafrost can have a significant impact on the surrounding environment, potentially inducing permafrost degradation. These impacts arise from factors such as snow accumulation near the road, which affects the soil's thermal and hydrological regime, and road dust that decreases the snow's albedo, altering the timing of snowmelt. However, our current understanding of the magnitude and the spatial extent of these effects is limited. In this study we addressed this gap by using remote sensing techniques to assess the spatial effect of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) in Northwest Territories, Canada, on snow accumulation, snow albedo and snowmelt patterns. With a new, high resolution snow depth raster from airborne laser scanning, we quantified the snow accumulation at road segments in the Trail Valley Creek area using digital elevation model differencing. We found increased snow accumulation up to 36 m from the road center. The magnitude of this snow accumulation was influenced by the prevailing wind direction and the embankment height. Furthermore, by analyzing 43 Sentinel-2 satellite images between February and May 2020, we observed reduced snow albedo values within 500 m of the road, resulting in a 12-days-earlier onset of snowmelt within 100 m from the road. We examined snowmelt patterns before, during and after the road construction using the normalized difference snow index from Landsat-7 and Landsat-8 imagery. Our analysis revealed that the road affected the snowmelt pattern up to 600 m from the road, even in areas which appeared undisturbed. In summary, our study improves our understanding of the spatial impact of gravel roads on permafrost due to enhanced snow accumulation, reduced snow albedo and earlier snowmelt. Our study underscores the important contribution that remote sensing can provide to improve our understanding of the effects of infrastructure development on permafrost environments. Article in Journal/Newspaper Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost The Cryosphere Tuktoyaktuk Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar- and Marine Research (AWI): ePIC (electronic Publication Information Center) Canada Inuvik ENVELOPE(-133.610,-133.610,68.341,68.341) Northwest Territories Trail Valley Creek ENVELOPE(-133.415,-133.415,68.772,68.772) Tuktoyaktuk ENVELOPE(-133.006,-133.006,69.425,69.425) Valley Creek ENVELOPE(-138.324,-138.324,63.326,63.326) The Cryosphere 17 12 5357 5372 |
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 |
Roads constructed on permafrost can have a significant impact on the surrounding environment, potentially inducing permafrost degradation. These impacts arise from factors such as snow accumulation near the road, which affects the soil's thermal and hydrological regime, and road dust that decreases the snow's albedo, altering the timing of snowmelt. However, our current understanding of the magnitude and the spatial extent of these effects is limited. In this study we addressed this gap by using remote sensing techniques to assess the spatial effect of the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) in Northwest Territories, Canada, on snow accumulation, snow albedo and snowmelt patterns. With a new, high resolution snow depth raster from airborne laser scanning, we quantified the snow accumulation at road segments in the Trail Valley Creek area using digital elevation model differencing. We found increased snow accumulation up to 36 m from the road center. The magnitude of this snow accumulation was influenced by the prevailing wind direction and the embankment height. Furthermore, by analyzing 43 Sentinel-2 satellite images between February and May 2020, we observed reduced snow albedo values within 500 m of the road, resulting in a 12-days-earlier onset of snowmelt within 100 m from the road. We examined snowmelt patterns before, during and after the road construction using the normalized difference snow index from Landsat-7 and Landsat-8 imagery. Our analysis revealed that the road affected the snowmelt pattern up to 600 m from the road, even in areas which appeared undisturbed. In summary, our study improves our understanding of the spatial impact of gravel roads on permafrost due to enhanced snow accumulation, reduced snow albedo and earlier snowmelt. Our study underscores the important contribution that remote sensing can provide to improve our understanding of the effects of infrastructure development on permafrost environments. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hammar, Jennika Grünberg, Inge Kokelj, Steven V van der Sluijs, Jurjen Boike, Julia |
spellingShingle |
Hammar, Jennika Grünberg, Inge Kokelj, Steven V van der Sluijs, Jurjen Boike, Julia Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada |
author_facet |
Hammar, Jennika Grünberg, Inge Kokelj, Steven V van der Sluijs, Jurjen Boike, Julia |
author_sort |
Hammar, Jennika |
title |
Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada |
title_short |
Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada |
title_full |
Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada |
title_fullStr |
Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada |
title_full_unstemmed |
Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada |
title_sort |
snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, inuvik–tuktoyaktuk highway, canada |
publisher |
Copernicus Publications |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/ https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/1/Hammar_etal_2023.pdf https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/5357/2023/ https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.69ffcd98-8b84-4cb0-a15a-7a5389e24d22 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-133.610,-133.610,68.341,68.341) ENVELOPE(-133.415,-133.415,68.772,68.772) ENVELOPE(-133.006,-133.006,69.425,69.425) ENVELOPE(-138.324,-138.324,63.326,63.326) |
geographic |
Canada Inuvik Northwest Territories Trail Valley Creek Tuktoyaktuk Valley Creek |
geographic_facet |
Canada Inuvik Northwest Territories Trail Valley Creek Tuktoyaktuk Valley Creek |
genre |
Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost The Cryosphere Tuktoyaktuk |
genre_facet |
Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost The Cryosphere Tuktoyaktuk |
op_source |
EPIC3The Cryosphere, Copernicus Publications, 17(12), pp. 5357-5372, ISSN: 1994-0416 |
op_relation |
https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58203/1/Hammar_etal_2023.pdf Hammar, J. , Grünberg, I. orcid:0000-0002-5748-8102 , Kokelj, S. V. , van der Sluijs, J. and Boike, J. orcid:0000-0002-5875-2112 (2023) Snow accumulation, albedo and melt patterns following road construction on permafrost, Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, Canada , The Cryosphere, 17 (12), pp. 5357-5372 . doi:10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 <https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023> , hdl:10013/epic.69ffcd98-8b84-4cb0-a15a-7a5389e24d22 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
container_volume |
17 |
container_issue |
12 |
container_start_page |
5357 |
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5372 |
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