SPATIALANALYSIS OF PERMAFROST CONDITIONS ON THE FEDERAL HIGHWAY P504 “KOLYMA”: the case of the Yakut section

The Yakut section of the Federal highway P504 “Kolyma” with a length of 1, 197 km was investigated. A GIS project was created in the ArcGIS format for a further spatial geographical analysis of the main geocryological conditions - the soil temperature, seasonal thawing depth and cryogenic processes using GIS technologies.In total, 12 types of terrain were identified by cutting them out from the Permafrost-Landscape Map of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) at a scale of 1:1,500,000.The spatial analysis results were visualizedin the form of maps. Quantitative characteristics of the permafrost conditions were given in the form of diagrams. It was revealed that the highway was mainly laid along sections of low terraces (33.2 % of the total area of 100 m zone) and the inter-alaas type of terrain (10.3 %), composed of high-ice deposits. In these areas, frost cracking was most often expressed in combination with other cryogenic processes (53.6 %) and thermokarst (21.7 %). The temperature of the soils in landscapes of the studied territory predominantly varied from -2°C to -4°C, with the lowest temperatures (-9°C) found in 3 % of the territory in the mountain lichen tundra of the Verkhoyansk Range. The maximum depths of seasonal thawing (> 2.5 m) can be traced only on 5 % of the total territory. The prevailing value of seasonal thawing depth was 1.5-2 m. The creation of a geoinformation system for the Kolyma Federal highway made it possible to collect data together in digital form, which is very convenient for their subsequent use, constant replenishment and correction of databases. This has improved the quality and speed of spatial data processing and time-consuming quantitative analyses.

permafrost conditions, GIS technologies, spatial analysis, permafrost landscape, soil temperature, ice content, depth of seasonal thawing, permafrost processes, thermokarst, Kolyma highway

1. Alexander Fedorov. Permafrost-Landscape Map of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) at scale 1:1,500,000 / Fedorov Alexander, Vasilyev Nikolay, Torgovkin Yaroslav, Shestakova Alena, Varlamov Stepan and etc. // Geosciences. - 2018. -Vol. 8(12). doi:10.3390/geosciences8120465.

2. ИвановМ.С. КриогенноестроениечетвертичныхотложенийЛено-Алданскойвпадины. - Новосибирск: Наука, 1984. - 123 с.

3. Гулый С.А.Анализ источников причин некоторых криогенных явлений на федеральной трассе р-504 "Колыма" / С.А. Гулый, Н. Прелль // Вестник Московского автомобильно-дорожного государственного технического университета (МАДИ). - 2013. - № 3 (34). - С. 72-77.

4. Aleksandr Fedorov A., Torgovkin Y., Vasilyev N., Shestakova A., Konstantinov P., Samsonova V., Kalinicheva S., Basharin N. Digital Thematic Mapping of the Current State of Permafrost Landscapes in Yakutia // Abstracts of International Conference “Solving the puzzles from Cryosphere” (Pushchino, Russia, April 15-18, 2019). - 2019. - P. 133-134.

5. Поморцев О.А. Изменение климата и инженерно-геологические проблемы на трассе "Колыма" в Южном Верхоянье / О.А. Поморцев, А.Ю. Гуков, В.А. Поморцев, М.В. Петрова // Разведка и охрана недр. - 2013. - № 12. - С. 70-75.