Determining dynamics of the Kara Sea coasts using remote sensing and UAV data: A case study

Studies of Arctic coasts are of great importance given their active dynamics with the tendency to retreat, especially in the last decades under the conditions of global climate warming and enhanced human impact. Here, we present the results of the first surveys of the Kara Sea coasts with use of such new technique as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Land surveys using DJI Phantom 4 PRO drone were conducted at two key sites: the Yamal coast of Baydaratskaya Bay in the area of the Bovanenkovo-Ukhta gas pipeline crossing (western Kara Sea) in 2018, and the western coast of Taymyr peninsula in the area of Dikson settlement, Lemberova Bay (eastern Kara Sea) in 2019. The imagery and DEMs built based on the UAV survey data were compared to earlier satellite imagery and ArcticDEMs that allowed estimation of coastal dynamics for several periods. Since the 1960s, coasts of the key areas had relatively slow retreat (0.4 m/yr for the Yamal area and 0.1 m/yr for the Taymyr area) compared to other sites of the Kara Sea and the Arctic in general. At the same time, there were high erosion rates at separate segments in certain periods: they reached 2 m/yr at erosional coastal segments with ice wedge outcrops, and up to 10 m/yr at low accumulative coasts in the area of gas facilities in the period of their construction.