MCA: Career Advancement in Polar Cyberinfrastructure: Permafrost Feature Mapping and Change Detection using Geospatial Artificial Intelligence and Remote Sensing

该奖项的全部或部分资金来自《2021年美国救援计划法案》(公法117-2)。极地地区在地球的气候、生态系统和经济中扮演着至关重要的角色。不幸的是，气候变化正在推动北极生态系统发生戏剧性变化，危及其自然环境、基础设施和生命。北极永久冻土是这种变化的中心，它是至少连续两个夏天保持在0摄氏度以下的地面。覆盖北半球近四分之一土地的永久冻土融化正在对北极地区造成重大的局部和地区性影响。严重的影响包括地面下沉对建筑环境造成的代价高昂的破坏，以及温室气体排放增加，这进一步夸大了温室效应和全球变暖。为了提高我们对北极快速变化中的多年冻土动态及其与北极其他生态系统组成部分之间的联系的了解，至关重要的是要有现成的地理空间数据，以提供关于永久冻土特征、其地理范围、分布和变化的高分辨率地图。尽管已经制定了泛北极永久冻土的粗略分类，但主要永久冻土特征的局部到区域尺度的精细绘图在很大程度上是不可用的。这种数据鸿沟不可避免地限制了我们对整个北极永久冻土退化的时空动态的整体看法。该项目的目标是通过开发新的分析解决方案来支持智能和自动化地描绘规模上的永久冻土要素，以弥合这一现有的数据差距。通过与伍德韦尔气候研究中心的同事合作，该项目将探索深化尖端人工智能、地理空间分析和网络基础设施与北极永久冻土研究的整合的新方法。具体地说，将开发新的GeoAI(地理空间人工智能)解决方案，以支持基于人工智能的高分辨率从大图像绘制泛北极永久冻土融化图的持续努力。通过实现位置感知和多源深度学习以及整合关键空间原则(即空间相关性和空间自相关)，拟议的GeoAI模型将创建具有高准确性和自动化的极地数据产品，从而加快新北极的科学导航。一项名为“极地网络基础设施中的女性”的联合倡议将扩大女性和代表性不足的少数民族在北极人工智能研究中的参与。它还将成为公开分享知识和资源的重要渠道，并为北极科学、地理人工智能和网络基础设施方面的早期学者提供指导。在这个项目中产生的所有数据集和工具都将是开源的，并将在NSF永久冻土发现网关中提供，以增加它们的重复使用并激励进一步的创新。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).Polar regions play a vital role in Earth’s climate, ecosystems, and economy. Unfortunately, climate change is driving dramatic changes in the Arctic ecosystem, endangering its natural environment, infrastructure, and lives. Arctic permafrost, ground that remains below 0°C for at least two consecutive summers, is at the center of this change. Covering nearly 1/4 of the land in the northern hemisphere, thawing permafrost is causing a significant local and regional impact in the Arctic. Severe impacts include land subsidence resulting in costly damage to the built environment and increased release of greenhouse gases which further exaggerates the greenhouse effect and global warming. To improve our understanding of permafrost dynamics and its linkages to other Arctic ecosystem components in the midst of rapid Arctic change, it is critically important to have geospatial data readily available that provide high-resolution mapping of permafrost features, their geographical extent, distribution, and change. Although a coarse classification of pan-Arctic permafrost has been developed, fine granularity, local to regional-scale mapping of major permafrost features, is largely unavailable. This data gap inevitably constrains us from gaining a holistic view of the space-time dynamics of permafrost degradation across the Arctic. The goal of this project is to bridge this existing data gap by developing new analytical solutions to support intelligent and automated delineation of permafrost features at scale.Through a partnership with colleagues at Woodwell Climate Research Center, this project will explore novel ways to deepen the integration of cutting-edge AI, geospatial analysis, and cyberinfrastructure into Arctic permafrost research. Specifically, novel GeoAI (Geospatial Artificial Intelligence) solutions will be developed to empower the ongoing efforts of AI-based, high-resolution mapping of pan-Arctic permafrost thaw from Big Imagery. By enabling location-aware and multi-source deep learning and the integration of key spatial principles (i.e., spatial dependency and spatial autocorrelation), the proposed GeoAI model will create polar data products with high veracity and automation, thereby accelerating the scientific navigation of the New Arctic. A joint initiative, “Women in Polar Cyberinfrastructure,” will broaden the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in Arctic AI research. It will also serve as an important avenue for openly sharing knowledge and resources and provide mentorship to early-career scholars in Arctic science, GeoAI, and cyberinfrastructure. All datasets and tools produced in this project will be open-sourced and made available in the NSF Permafrost Discovery Gateway to increase their reuse and inspire further innovation.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.