ANADYR, December 17. /TASS/. A permafrost monitoring system in Anadyr is planned to be installed by the end of 2025. The new permafrost monitoring concept involves modeling temperature fields in the city soils, leading researcher at the Northeastern Integrated Research Institute Oleg Tregubov told TASS.
"We plan to create a permafrost monitoring system in Anadyr by the end of 2025," he said. "The new concept of permafrost monitoring, implemented in Chukotka and specifically in Anadyr, involves mapping unfrozen permafrost areas and modeling temperature fields in soils in the city, approaches to location of observation wells and geophysical profiles to monitor the temperature and spread of the unfrozen areas. This was done in Anadyr in 2021, 2023, where 20 dangerous zones that may threaten 223 buildings were identified," he said.
Drilling additional wells and installation of measuring equipment, annual geophysical works on control profiles are due in 2025, he continued. "Those are 35 wells 10.5 m deep and 12 profiles of 50-100 m long."
Specific approach
The expert stressed that within the proposed approach, there is a possibility of short-and long-term forecasting of how will develop permafrost conditions, including threats to urban infrastructures, and of taking preventive measures to mitigate threats. "It is the forecasting option that distinguishes monitoring systems from security systems," the expert said.
The automated systems to observe various parameters, including soil temperature, is not a "know-how", he continued. "Russia's several companies make and install this equipment. Its advantage is a year-round remote access to wells and an instant access to databases, saving time and labor costs in such measurements. Our monitoring system's novelty is in the object of observation. The settlement's area and the borders (central) of the thawed areas, in particular," he said.
With the new approach, specialists will be able to make spatial models of seasonal and long-term temperature fields, to determine occurrence rates of thawed areas at different depths and under different conditions. "The previous experience is related mainly to automatic temperature measurements in wells at the base of individual buildings and structures, to determination and prediction of seasonal and long-term temperature dynamics in a particular well," he added.
Experimental work
The soil temperature monitoring network's experimental segment consists of six wells located in different conditions: in the center and at the border of thawed areas, at different distances from the thawing boundary, in regular permafrost conditions at bases of buildings' foundations.
"Every six hours, temperature measurement data from depths of 1, 3, 5 and 10 m are transmitted to the server. The observation continues year-round to reflect seasonal temperature dynamics. The experimental segment faced, in fact, a non-specific task - to assess the degree and nature of vandalism against devices in order to improve their protection. During the year, there have been two cases of vandalism, which were eliminated quickly enough, and work on protection is underway," the researcher said.
The server capacity is sufficient to connect automated networks of Chukotka's other settlements to the system. However, the system will continue to operate in pilot mode for at least three years. "Thus, in future we will save time needed to create monitoring systems in the region's other locations. In addition to the financial aspect, there is an issue of personnel. This problem is also being resolved. I must stress that in recent few years, the ideas of permafrost monitoring in Chukotka, the regional permafrost service have been supported by the scientific community, the society, and executive authorities," he said.
The region has been working on a local law on the permafrost's protection and rational use, the scientist said. The law provides for creation of monitoring systems in Chukotka's settlements and a regional state service to monitor permafrost.
Under the regional plan for adaptation to climate change, he continued, the next settlement to have a permafrost monitoring system would be Pevek - Chukotka's northern gate.
Scientists have initiated geophysical works in Pevek to make a catalog of preserved observation wells, and have negotiated cooperation with the city authorities. "The problems of creating a monitoring system in Pevek, except for finances and personnel, are associated with the poor quality of mobile communications and the Internet. The Russian government plans to provide Pevek with cable communications by the end of 2026. Thus, we plan to create a monitoring system in the city in 2029-2030," the expert said in conclusion.