Terrain Controls and Landscape‐Scale Susceptibility Modelling of Active‐Layer Detachments, Sabine Peninsula, Melville Island, Nunavut

Ashley C. A. Rudy, Scott F. Lamoureux, Paul Treitz, Karin Van Ewijk, Philip P. Bonnaventure and Paul Budkewitsch

Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 2017, vol. 28, issue 1, 79-91

Abstract: Modelling the susceptibility of permafrost slopes to disturbance can identify areas at risk to future disturbance and result in safer infrastructure and resource development in the Arctic. In this study, we use terrain attributes derived from a digital elevation model, an inventory of permafrost slope disturbances known as active‐layer detachments (ALDs) and generalised additive modelling to produce a map of permafrost slope disturbance susceptibility for an area on northern Melville Island, in the Canadian High Arctic. By examining terrain variables and their relative importance, we identified factors important for initiating slope disturbance. The model was calibrated and validated using 70 and 30 per cent of a data‐set of 760 mapped ALDs, including disturbed and randomised undisturbed samples. The generalised additive model calibrated and validated very well, with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.89 and 0.81, respectively, demonstrating its effectiveness at predicting disturbed and undisturbed samples. ALDs were most likely to occur below the marine limit on slope angles between 3 and 10° and in areas with low values of potential incoming solar radiation (north‐facing slopes). Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Date: 2017
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.1900

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:perpro:v:28:y:2017:i:1:p:79-91

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Permafrost and Periglacial Processes from John Wiley & Sons
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().