Creating High-resolution Permafrost Maps Using LiDAR as Baseline Datasets for Landscape Change on the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska
Abstract
Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim (YK) Delta spans nearly 67,200 km2 and is among the largest and most productive coastal wetland ecosystems in the pan-Arctic. Permafrost currently forms extensive elevated plateaus on abandoned floodplain deposits of the outer delta, but is vulnerable to disturbance from rising temperatures, inland storm surges, and salt-kill of vegetation. This ecosystem-protected permafrost is expected to disappear within the coming century, which will profoundly affect local communities reliant on services provided by the permafrost plateaus. Thus, accurate baseline maps of permafrost extent are critical for a variety of applications including long-term monitoring, understanding the scale and pace of permafrost degradation processes, and estimating resultant greenhouse gas dynamics. This study shows that high-resolution LiDAR data in tandem with field-based parameterization and validation can yield permafrost maps with 95% overall accuracy. This region is a good case study for mapping permafrost with LiDAR alone, as the majority of the topography on the coastal plain comes from permafrost aggradation, where non-permafrost areas are extremely flat. The resultant maps serve as an important baseline for tracking change in the region, and monitoring permafrost - and by proxy community - health in the region.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMGC33D1395W
- Keywords:
-
- 0475 Permafrost;
- cryosphere;
- and high-latitude processes;
- BIOGEOSCIENCESDE: 0710 Periglacial processes;
- CRYOSPHEREDE: 1615 Biogeochemical cycles;
- processes;
- and modeling;
- GLOBAL CHANGEDE: 4323 Human impact;
- NATURAL HAZARDS