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...
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Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
2023
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Online Access: | http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/29283 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-110-18452/29283-0 https://doi.org/10.18452/28669 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 |
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fthuberlin:oai:edoc.hu-berlin.de:18452/29283 2024-06-23T07:54:13+00:00 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 http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/29283 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-110-18452/29283-0 https://doi.org/10.18452/28669 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 eng eng Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/29283 urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-110-18452/29283-0 http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/28669 1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 (CC BY 4.0) Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ 550 Geowissenschaften ddc:550 article doc-type:article publishedVersion 2023 fthuberlin https://doi.org/10.18452/2866910.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 2024-05-29T06:45:38Z 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. Peer Reviewed Article in Journal/Newspaper Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost Tuktoyaktuk Open-Access-Publikationsserver der Humboldt-Universität: edoc-Server 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) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Open-Access-Publikationsserver der Humboldt-Universität: edoc-Server |
op_collection_id |
fthuberlin |
language |
English |
topic |
550 Geowissenschaften ddc:550 |
spellingShingle |
550 Geowissenschaften ddc:550 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 |
topic_facet |
550 Geowissenschaften ddc:550 |
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. Peer Reviewed |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hammar, Jennika Grünberg, Inge Kokelj, Steven V. van der Sluijs, Jurjen Boike, Julia |
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 |
Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/29283 https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-110-18452/29283-0 https://doi.org/10.18452/28669 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 |
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 Tuktoyaktuk |
genre_facet |
Inuvik Northwest Territories permafrost Tuktoyaktuk |
op_relation |
http://edoc.hu-berlin.de/18452/29283 urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-110-18452/29283-0 http://dx.doi.org/10.18452/28669 1994-0424 doi:10.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 |
op_rights |
(CC BY 4.0) Attribution 4.0 International https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.18452/2866910.5194/tc-17-5357-2023 |
_version_ |
1802646281089187840 |