Enhancement of Permafrost Monitoring Network & Collection of Baseline Terrain Information in Mackenzie Valley Corridor
(Geological Survey of Canada; Contact S. Smith for more information)

Background
Permafrost is soil or rock that remains below 0°C throughout the year and is an important feature of the Mackenzie valley landscape. Permafrost has impacts on both the natural and socio-economic environment of northern Canada. Permafrost and the ground ice it contains present significant challenges to northern development and has an important influence on drainage and ecosystems. Changes to the permafrost distribution and thawing of ground ice in response to climate change or surface disturbance related to northern development can result in settlement of soils and alterations to surface and subsurface hydrology which has implications for infrastructure, terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and northern/traditional lifestyles.

Knowledge of permafrost conditions (temperature, active layer thickness and ground ice conditions) and their variation both regionally and through time is critical for rational planning of development in northern Canada and for understanding the impact of environmental disturbance and climate change on the permafrost environment. A comprehensive network of permafrost monitoring sites throughout the Mackenzie valley corridor would provide field observations of active layer thickness and the permafrost temperature which are essential for understanding the present permafrost conditions, for detecting changes in these conditions resulting from surface disturbances or climate changes, and understanding and predicting future response. The information provided would serve both short and long-term needs of communities, governments and industry.

Since the late 1980s, the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) in collaboration with other government departments, has been developing and maintaining a network of active layer and permafrost temperature monitoring sites in the Mackenzie region (Figure 1). Included in this network are about 20 monitoring sites located on and off the Norman Wells pipeline right-of-way established in the mid 1980s to investigate the impact of the pipeline project on permafrost and terrain conditions. The information generated by the monitoring network has increased baseline knowledge of permafrost and terrain conditions in the region, provided valuable information for design and environmental impact mitigation of future pipelines and other northern development and allowed the documentation of the response of permafrost conditions to climate change.

There are however extensive gaps in the existing monitoring network including the continuous permafrost zone north of Norman Wells, in the Mackenzie Delta and along dynamic permafrost shorelines and coastlines. Enhancement of the network to address these gaps is essential to provide additional baseline information for design of future development such as pipelines, highways and power lines, and to assess the impact such development and/or climate change may have on the natural environment.

	Thermal Monitoring Sites