Climate and Permafrost Data Integration in Support of the Development of the Community of Salluit, Nunavik

摘要

The fast-growing population in the village of Salluit creates important housing and infrastructure needs, on a terrain that has difficult topographical constraints and ice-rich permafrost. Those challenges require regularly updated information on permafrost temperatures, rates of summer thawing of the active layer, and on georisks. There is an abundance and spatially distributed monitoring instruments in Salluit [e.g. thermistor cables, distributed temperature sensing (DTS) with fiber optic cables, and SILA, automatic weather station of the CEN network]. The integration of data in an easy access database will allow monitoring of permafrost behavior and assessment of georisks, particularly active-layer detachment failures, in the community. This paper discusses data integration and the relevance of information on permafrost temperature and climate monitoring for land use planning in Salluit. These data are synthesized into an online database regularly updated and easily accessible. The updated version of the mapping will be available in ArcGIS Online for the institutions and stakeholders involved in the development of northern communities. The overall purpose is to facilitate decision-making towards a sustainable development, offering a support to land use planning, construction, and security assessments.