68th Canadian Geotechnical Conference and 7th Canadian Permafrost Conference

USING REMOTE SENSING AND GROUND BASED MEASUREMENTS TO IDENTIFY VEGETATION-GEOMORPHOLOGY PATTERNS IN PERMAFROST

Session: GIS and Remote Sensing in Cold Regions / SIG et télédétection en régions nordiques

Thomas Douglas, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (United States)
Christopher Hiemstra, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (United States)
Kevin Bjella, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (United States)
Torre Jorgenson, Alaska Ecoscience (United States)
Stephen Newman, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (United States)
Elias Deeb, U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (United States)
John Anderson, U.S. Army Geospatial Research Laboratory (United States)

Ice content, sediment composition, and vegetation are key variables in predicting how and where permafrost will respond to projected Arctic climate warming. Orbital and suborbital remote sensing tools, historical imagery, pattern detection, and LiDAR can be combined to provide a holistic view of how and where the landscape will respond to climate warming. However, this information can only provide realistic results when it is calibrated with field measurements representing a variety of terrain states, seasonal variations, and physical and chemical processes. This presentation will include remote sensing, field survey, and ground based geophysical measurements from a variety of discontinuous permafrost terrains in interior Alaska. We have combined electrical resistivity tomography, airborne LiDAR, active layer measurements, and high resolution surveying to link landscape features with permafrost ice content, vegetation, and the soil thermal regime.