Resilient Northern Civil Infrastructure: Geohazard Effects within a Changing Climate

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Climate change has impacted Canada's northern regions with observed permafrost thaw resulting in infrastructure deterioration and landscape transformations. Reliance on the historical climate record and current engineering framework will most likely lead to increased exposure and vulnerability of northern civil infrastructure (e.g. roads, bridges, culverts). This may impact asset performance resulting in economic losses, and may impact asset integrity that could cause personal injury or loss of life. For example, the average annual cost of highway maintenance in permafrost free regions of the Yukon is $4,000/km, which, in contrast, is $30,000/km ($6 million per year) for a 200 km segment of highway between Destruction Bay and the U.S. border affected by permafrost degradation.The long-term goal of this research program is the advancement of engineering practice for the performance assessment of linear civil infrastructure systems (e.g. roads, bridges, culverts) subject to geohazards with an emphasis on northern communities in context of a changing climate. To achieve this vision, complementary short-term objectives will address current gaps and deficiencies in current engineering practice by advancing new tools that can (1) identify, monitor and characterize geohazards (e.g. areal extent, rate of ground movement), (2) monitor and estimate the current state or condition of the infrastructure (e.g. excessive deflection, cracks, or spalls), and (3) predict future infrastructure performance (e.g. magnitude of thaw settlement over time) and evaluate adaptation practices (e.g. changing embankment design practices). The research outcomes will establish a technical basis to develop forward looking engineering best practices in design, management and adaptation of resilient infrastructure that can effectively address geohazards within a more informed decision-making framework.