Remote sensing of permafrost-related problems and hazards

Modern remote sensing techniques can help in the assessment of permafrost hazards in high latitudes and cold mountains. Hazard development in these areas is affected by process interactions and chain reactions, the ongoing shift of cryospheric hazard zones due to atmospheric warming, the large spatial scales involved and the remoteness of many permafrost-related threats. This paper reviews ground-based, airborne and spaceborne remote sensing methods suitable for permafrost hazard assessment and management. A wide range of image classification and change detection techniques support permafrost hazard studies. Digital terrain models (DTMs) derived from optical stereo, synthetic aperture radar (SAR) or laser scanning data are some of the most important data sets for investigating permafrost-related mass movements, thaw and heave processes, and hydrological hazards. Multi-temporal optical or SAR data are used to derive surface displacements on creeping and unstable frozen slopes. Combining DTMs with results from spectral image classification, and with multi-temporal data from change detection and displacement measurements significantly improves the detection of hazard potential. Copyright (c) 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.