Permafrost temperatures were measured by the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in 1977-1981 at boreholes along a proposed pipeline route in the southern Yukon. Analysis of climate station records indicate that mean annual air temperatures in the region have since increased by 0.5-1.0˚C. Renewed interest in the pipeline and the need to develop adaptation strategies for existing highway infrastructure have meant that information on permafrost and geotechnical conditions must be updated. To accomplish this goal, a total of eight GSC boreholes ranging in depth from 5-9 m were located, unblocked of ice and instrumented with thermistor cables and data-loggers to permit renewed ground temperature monitoring. Manual temperature measurements were also taken at four other shallow boreholes. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys were conducted at each site. MAGTs below 1 m at permafrost sites in the study area range from -0.2˚C to -1.5˚C with permafrost depths greater than 25 m. The permafrost at the study sites can be classified as sporadic discontinuous and extensive discontinuous. Ground temperatures indicate that permafrost can persist under warmer climatic conditions as long as it remains protected by its ecosystem properties. Thermal monitoring for 2011-2012 shows an average increase of 0.5-1.0˚C when compared to the original 1978-1981 ground temperatures. This slow rate of ground warming is mainly attributed to a combination of limited climate change, especially in the south of the study area, ground temperatures close to 0˚C, and the possible disturbance of sites from the removal of vegetation prior to the original measurements being made. ERT surveys conducted at most borehole sites show deeper thaw or taliks where the cleared cut-line used for geophysical work in the 1970s is crossed. These results indicate the impacts of climate change and environmental change in the study area over the past three decades. They appear to match the relatively slow rates of ground warming observed elsewhere in northern Canada where permafrost temperatures are close to 0˚C and where warming also requires changes in latent heat due to internal thaw. TTOP equilibrium modelling suggests that if climate change is responsible for the ground warming, most of the change can be attributed to the step-like MAAT increase that occurred between 1975-1976.

Permafrost temperatures were measured by the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in 1977-1981 at boreholes along a proposed pipeline route in the southern Yukon. Analysis of climate station records indicate that mean annual air temperatures in the region have since increased by 0.5-1.0˚C. Renewed interest in the pipeline and the need to develop adaptation strategies for existing highway infrastructure have meant that information on permafrost and geotechnical conditions must be updated. To accomplish this goal, a total of eight GSC boreholes ranging in depth from 5-9 m were located, unblocked of ice and instrumented with thermistor cables and data-loggers to permit renewed ground temperature monitoring. Manual temperature measurements were also taken at four other shallow boreholes. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) surveys were conducted at each site. MAGTs below 1 m at permafrost sites in the study area range from -0.2˚C to -1.5˚C with permafrost depths greater than 25 m. The permafrost at the study sites can be classified as sporadic discontinuous and extensive discontinuous. Ground temperatures indicate that permafrost can persist under warmer climatic conditions as long as it remains protected by its ecosystem properties. Thermal monitoring for 2011-2012 shows an average increase of 0.5-1.0˚C when compared to the original 1978-1981 ground temperatures. This slow rate of ground warming is mainly attributed to a combination of limited climate change, especially in the south of the study area, ground temperatures close to 0˚C, and the possible disturbance of sites from the removal of vegetation prior to the original measurements being made. ERT surveys conducted at most borehole sites show deeper thaw or taliks where the cleared cut-line used for geophysical work in the 1970s is crossed. These results indicate the impacts of climate change and environmental change in the study area over the past three decades. They appear to match the relatively slow rates of ground warming observed elsewhere in northern Canada where permafrost temperatures are close to 0˚C and where warming also requires changes in latent heat due to internal thaw. TTOP equilibrium modelling suggests that if climate change is responsible for the ground warming, most of the change can be attributed to the step-like MAAT increase that occurred between 1975-1976.

Les infrastructures de transport est essentielle au maintien et à l'expansion des activités sociales et économiques dans les régions circumpolaires. À mesure que le climat se réchauffe, la dégradation du pergélisol sous les remblais a entraîné de graves dommages structuraux à la route, entraînant une augmentation importante des coûts d'entretien et une réduction de la durée de vie des infrastructures. Pendant ce temps, l'advection de chaleur déclenchée par les écoulements d’eau souterrains peut altérer le bilan énergétique du remblai et du pergélisol sous-jacent et modifier le régime thermique des remblais routiers. Cependant, peu de recherches ont été effectuées pour comprendre la synergie entre les processus thermiques de surface et souterrains des remblais routiers des régions froides. L'objectif de cette recherche était de comprendre les interactions thermiques entre l'atmosphère, le remblai routier, les écoulements d’eau et le pergélisol dans le contexte du changement climatique. Cette base, de connaissances est nécessaire pour la conception technique, l'entretien des routes et l'évaluation de la vulnérabilité des infrastructures. Les travaux de recherche ont permis de développer de nouvelles méthodes d'analyse thermique pour caractériser et identifier le rôle de l'advection thermique sur le changement de température d'un remblai routier expérimental au Yukon (Canada) en termes d’intensité, de vitesse et de profondeur de l'impact thermique. Les résultats montrent que l'augmentation de la température due aux flux de chaleur advectifs déclenchés par l’écoulement d'eau peut être jusqu'à deux ordres de grandeur plus rapide qu'en raison du seul réchauffement atmosphérique. La recherche a ensuite présenté un bilan énergétique de surface pour quantifier la quantité d'énergie entrant dans le centre et la pente du remblai avec des épaisseurs et des propriétés de neige variables. Le tout a été appuyé par des observations géothermique de plusieurs années et une grande quantité de données météorologiques. Les résultats illustrent que le bilan énergétique de surface est principalement contrôlé par le rayonnement net et moins par le flux de chaleur sensible. Le flux de chaleur transmis à la pente du remblai diminue de façon exponentielle avec l'augmentation de l'épaisseur de la neige et diminue de façon linéaire avec l’installation du couvert de neige et la longueur de la période d’enneigement. De plus, un modèle de bilan énergétique de surface et un modèle cryohydrologique entièrement couplé ont été développés pour étudier l'impact thermique de l'advection de chaleur associée à l'écoulement de l'eau souterraine sur le dégel du pergélisol et le développement de taliks (c.-à-d. zone perpétuellement non gelée dans les zones de pergélisol). Le modèle couplé a réussi à reproduire la tendance à la hausse du plafond du pergélisol (erreur absolue moyenne <0,2 m) au cours de la période 1997-2018. Les résultats montrent que l'advection de chaleur a fourni une source d'énergie supplémentaire pour accélérer le dégel du pergélisol et a doublé le taux d’augmentation de l’épaisseur de la couche active 0,1 m·a-1 à 0,19 m·a-1, par rapport au scénario où aucun écoulement d'eau ne se produit. Le talik s'est initialement formé et développé en fonction du temps sous l’effet combiné des écoulement d’eau, de l'isolation de la neige, de la construction de la route et du réchauffement climatique. Le débit d'eau souterraine a relié des corps isolés de talik et a amené le remblai de la route dans un état thermique irréversible, en raison de la rétroaction de l'eau liquide (effet de chaleur latente) piégée dans le talik. Ces résultats montrent l'importance de l'advection de chaleur induite par l'écoulement d'eau sur le régime thermique de la sous-couche (c.-à-d. la couche de matériau de remblai) et du sous-sol (c.-à-d. le matériau natif sous un remblai) du remblai lorsque le remblai routier intercepte le drainage local. De plus, les résultats obtenus soulignent la nécessité de coupler les processus thermiques de surface et souterrains dans le but d'évaluer la stabilité thermique des routes subarctiques. / Transportation infrastructure is crucial to maintaining and expanding the social and economic activities in circumpolar regions. As the climate warms, degradation of the permafrost causes severe structural damages to the road embankment, leading to large increases in maintenance costs and reductions in its lifespan. Meanwhile, heat advection triggered by mobile water flow can alter energy balance of the embankment and underlying permafrost and modify the thermal regime of road embankments. However, little research has been done to understand the synergy between surface and subsurface thermal processes of cold region road embankments. The overall goal of this research was to elucidate thermal interactions between the atmosphere, the road embankment, mobile water flow, and permafrost within the context of climate change. This knowledge is needed for engineered design, road maintenance, and infrastructure vulnerability assessment. The research first used new thermal analysis to characterize and identify the role of heat advection on temperature change of an experimental road embankment, Yukon, Canada in terms of magnitude, rate and thermal impact depth. It shows that soil temperature increase due to advective heat fluxes triggered by mobile water flow can be up to two orders of magnitude faster than due to atmospheric warming only. The research then presented a novel surface energy balance to quantify the amount of ground heat flux entering the embankment center and slope with varying snow depth and properties, supported by multi-year thermal and meteorological observations. My results illustrate that the surface energy budget is mainly controlled by net radiation, and less by the sensible heat flux. The ground heat flux released at embankment slope exponentially decreased with the increase of snow depth, and was linearly reduced with earlier snow cover and longer snow-covered period. A fully integrated surface energy balance and cryohydrogeological model was implemented to investigate the thermal impact of heat advection associated with subsurface water flow on permafrost thaw and talik (i.e., perennially unfrozen zone in permafrost areas) development. The integrated model successfully reproduced the observed increasing trend of the active layer depth (mean absolute error < 0.2 m) over the 1997-2018 period. The results show that heat advection provided an additional energy source to expedite permafrost thaw, doubling the increasing rate of permafrost table depth from 0.1 m·a-1 to 0.19 m·a-1, compared with the scenario where no water flow occurs. Talik formation and development occurred over time under the combined effect of subsurface water flow, snow insulation, road construction and climate warming. Subsurface water flow connected isolated talik bodies and triggered an irreversible thermal state for the road embankment, due to a local feedback mechanism (latent heat effect) of trapped, unfrozen water in talik. These findings elucidate the importance of heat advection induced by mobile water flow on the thermal regime of embankment subbase (i.e., a layer of fill material) and subgrade (i.e., the native material under an embankment) when the road embankment intercepts the local drainage. Furthermore, the obtained results emphasize the need to couple surface and subsurface thermal processes to evaluate the thermal stability of sub-Arctic roads.