Spatial Variability of Active Layer Thickness along the Qinghai–Tibet Engineering Corridor Resolved Using Ground-Penetrating Radar

• Published in: Remote Sensing
• Main Authors: Shichao Jia, Tingjun Zhang, Jiansheng Hao, Chaoyue Li, Roger Michaelides, Wanwan Shao, Sihao Wei, Kun Wang, Chengyan Fan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: active layer thickness; ground-penetrating radar; Tibetan Plateau; permafrost; engineering; Science; Q; Active layer thickness
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14215606; https://doaj.org/article/e92935c01ad34cbc9840ad6f91213849

Active layer thickness (ALT) is a sensitive indicator of response to climate change. ALT has important influence on various aspects of the regional environment such as hydrological processes and vegetation. In this study, 57 ground-penetrating radar (GPR) sections were surveyed along the Qinghai–Tibet Engineering Corridor (QTEC) during 2018–2021, covering a total length of 58.5 km. The suitability of GPR-derived ALT was evaluated using in situ measurements and reference datasets, for which the bias and root mean square error were approximately −0.16 and 0.43 m, respectively. The GPR results show that the QTEC ALT was in the range of 1.25–6.70 m (mean: 2.49 ± 0.57 m). Observed ALT demonstrated pronounced spatial variability at both regional and fine scales. We developed a statistical estimation model that explicitly considers the soil thermal regime (i.e., ground thawing index, TI g ), soil properties, and vegetation. This model was found suitable for simulating ALT over the QTEC, and it could explain 52% ( R 2 = 0.52) of ALT variability. The statistical model shows that a difference of 10 °C.d in <math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msqrt><mrow><mi>T</mi><msub><mi>I</mi><mi>g</mi></msub></mrow></msqrt></mrow></semantics></math> is equivalent to a change of 0.67 m in ALT, and an increase of 0.1 in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) is equivalent to a decrease of 0.23 m in ALT. The fine-scale (<1 km) variation in ALT could account for 77.6% of the regional-scale (approximately 550 km) variation. These results provide a timely ALT benchmark along the QTEC, which can inform the construction and maintenance of engineering facilities along the QTEC.