Earth’s Cryosphere, 2022, Vol. XXVI, No. 4, p. 3-15.
GEOCRYOLOGICAL MONITORING AND FORECAST
DEVELOPMENT OF GEOCRYOLOGICAL MONITORING OF UNDISTURBED AND DISTURBED RUSSIAN PERMAFROST AREAS ON THE BASIS OF GEOTECHNICAL MONITORING SYSTEMS OF THE ENERGY INDUSTRY
V.P. Melnikov1–4, V.I. Osipov5, A.V. Brouchkov6,*, A.G. Alekseev7,8, S.V. Badina6,9,
N.M. Berdnikov1, S.A. Velikin10, D.S. Drozdov1,11, V.A. Dubrovin12, M.N. Zheleznyak10, O.V. Zhdaneev13, A.A. Zakharov14, Ya.K. Leopold15, M.E. Kuznetsov16, G.V. Malkova1, A.B. Osokin17, N.A. Ostarkov18, F.M. Rivkin1, M.R. Sadurtdinov1, D.O. Sergeev5, R.Yu. Fedorov1,2, K.N. Frolov13, E.V. Ustinova1,3, A.N. Shein15
1 Earth Cryosphere Institute, Tyumen Scientific Center, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Malygina 86, Tyumen 625026 Russia
2 Tyumen State University, ul. Volodarskogo 6, Tyumen, 625003 Russia
3 Tyumen Industrial University, ul. Volodarskogo 38, Tyumen, 625000 Russia
4 Cryosphere Interdisciplinary Research Methodology Department, Tyumen Scientific Center,
Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Malygina 86, Tyumen, 625026 Russia
5 Sergeev Geoecology Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Ulanskiy per. 13, build. 2, Moscow, 101000 Russia
6 Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1, Moscow, 119991 Russia
7 Research Center of Construction, Ryazanskiy prosp. 59, Moscow, 109428 Russia
8 Moscow State University of Civil Engineering, Yaroslavskoe shosse 26, Moscow, 129337 Russia
9 Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, Stremyannyi per. 36, Moscow, 117997 Russia
10 Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, ul. Merzlotnaya 36, Yakutsk, 677010 Russia
11 Ordzhonikidze Russian State University for Geological Prospecting, ul. Miklukho-Maklaya 23, Moscow, 117997 Russia
12 Gidrospetsgeologiya, ul. Marshala Rybalko 4, Moscow, 123060 Russia
13 Russian Energy Agency, prosp. Mira 105, build. 1, Moscow, 129085 Russia
14 Transneft, Presnenskaya Naberezhnaya 4, build. 2, Moscow, 123112 Russia
15 Arctic Research Center, ul. Respubliki 20, office 203, Salekhard, 629008 Russia
16 FASI “Vostokgosplan”, ul. Zaparina 67, Khabarovsk, 680000 Russia
17 Nadymgazprom, ul. Pionerskaya 14, Nadym, 629730 Russia
18 Ministry of the Russian Federation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic,
Bolshoy Mogiltsevskiy per. 7, build. 2, Moscow, 119002 Russia
*Corresponding author; e-mail: brouchkov@geol.msu.ru
Over the past 30 years, a significant rise in temperature of the upper horizons of permafrost has taken place in Russia: on average, by 2.5°C. This has caused permafrost degradation, which negatively affects both natural landscapes and engineering infrastructure. Economic entities try to protect their enterprises by investing both in engineering measures and in monitoring of changes in frozen ground under structures. One of the leading places in this area is occupied by the fuel and energy complex. A system of automated geotechnical monitoring of the frozen ground is beginning to be implemented at its enterprises, and in the near future (5–10 years) this will become mandatory for every facility in the permafrost zone. So far, in different regions and organizations, geotechnical monitoring of permafrost has been carried out according to different methods, often in a reduced volume, without taking into account natural trends, and in the absence ofappropriate analysis and forecast. Moreover, environmental changes occurring regardless of the economic activity of humans, are often ignored. This situation sharply reduces the efficiency of monitoring. The reason for the low efficiency of monitoring works is related to the shortcomings of the regulations for observation and data processing, on one hand, and to the insufficient volume of geocryological monitoring of natural conditions in undisturbed areas of the Russian Federation, on the other hand. As a result, the possibility of a medium-term (15–50 years), and long-term (over 50 years) forecasts of changes in permafrost is extremely limited. For the fuel and energy complex, the problem is aggravated by the lack of data exchange between its individual companies both within the regions and at the federal level. A scheme of the federal permafrost monitoring system is proposed. It implies the creation of a system of federal geocryological polygons, where two types of monitoring are combined: environmental monitoring of natural conditions and geotechnical monitoring of land and subsoil users (primarily, in the fuel and energy complex) – the so-called geocryological monitoring of undisturbed and disturbed areas.
Keywords: global climate change, permafrost, fuel and energy complex, geocryological monitoring of undisturbed
areas, geocryological monitoring of disturbed areas (geotechnical monitoring), geocryological station, thaw,
damage, Arctic
Recommended citation: Melnikov V.P., Osipov V.I., Brouchkov A.V., Alekseev A.G., Badina S.V., Berdnikov N.M., Velikin S.A., Drozdov D.S., Dubrovin V.A., Zheleznyak M.N., Zhdaneev O.V., Zakharov A.A., Leopold Ya.K., Kuznetsov M.E., Malkova G.V., Osokin A.B., Ostarkov N.A., Rivkin F.M., Sadurtdinov M.R., Sergeev D.O., Fedorov R.Yu., Frolov K.N., Ustinova E.V., Shein A.N., 2022. Development of geocryological monitoring of undisturbed and disturbed Russian permafrost areas on the basis of geotechnical monitoring systems of the energy industry. Earth’s Cryosphere, XXVI (4), 3–15.