Characteristics and Influence Rules of Roadside Ponding along the Qinghai–Tibet Highway

Due to climate change and seasonal precipitation, water conditions in the Qinghai–Tibet region are a significant factor affecting the stability of subgrades. The accumulation of large amounts of surface water leads to subgrade diseases along the Qinghai–Tibet Highway. Based on remote sensing photos...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Water
Main Authors: Fuqing Cui, Yu Zhu, Xiaona Liu, Jianbing Chen, Ke Mu, Zhiyun Liu
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3390/w16070954
https://doaj.org/article/2889e9377aa24ce286eb73061c1df49b
Description
Summary:Due to climate change and seasonal precipitation, water conditions in the Qinghai–Tibet region are a significant factor affecting the stability of subgrades. The accumulation of large amounts of surface water leads to subgrade diseases along the Qinghai–Tibet Highway. Based on remote sensing photos obtained from Google Earth Engine and processing the photos using ENVI 5.6.3 and CAD 2019 software, this paper analyzed the distribution characteristics of surface water and studied the impact of roadside ponding on subgrade diseases. The results showed that the total area of surface water was more than 3.7 million m 2 , and the surface water was most widely distributed in large river areas such as the Tuotuo River and Buqu River. The subgrade diseases of the Qinghai–Tibet Highway could be categorized into three types: settlement, longitudinal crack, and frost boiling, which accounted for 71.09%, 17.13%, and 11.78% of the total number of subgrade diseases, respectively. Additionally, the ground mean annual temperature was an important factor affecting the distribution of surface water, with the surface water area showing an increasing trend with the increase in ground mean annual temperature, and roadside ponding was most likely to form in the high-temperature extremely unstable permafrost area.