Pan-Arctic remotely sensed observation of coastal settlements - recent updates

Rapid and unprecedented warming of high latitudes exposes Arctic coastal communities to greater vulnerability as they observe their territory changing through general permafrost degradation, episodes of flooding and accelerated coastal erosion threatening their infrastructure and livelihood. Local information is known for infrastructures mapping and coastal changes but consistency in the measurement is lacking as well as spatial coverage for large coastal areas. The need of a consistent circumpolar dataset is primordial in order to map risks and mitigate impacts for arctic coastal communities. Machine learning methods with Sentinel 1/2 imagery allow the circumpolar mapping of arctic coastal settlements (Bartsch et al. 2021a). Validation of recent updates are supported by high-resolution data from the Pleiades satellites, aerial and drone imagery. 

This study is part of the ESA EO4PAC project which aims to provide a range of satellite derived information, including coastal erosion/accretion and infrastructure in the proximity, for the next generation of the Arctic Coastal Dynamic Database (ACD; Lantuit, et al. 2012).  Previous results highlight the detection of 50% more human presence information than in OpenStreetMap especially in Russia with recent expansion of infrastructures related to expanding oil and gas industry. Recent updates of the SACHI dataset (Bartsch et al. 2021b) will be presented including additional attributes for roads and their validation. A preliminary categorization of settlements with respect to permafrost degradation (based on Permafrost_cci records) and coastal erosion based on the current ACD will be presented.

Bartsch, A., G. Pointner, I. Nitze, A. Efimova, D. Jakober, S. Ley, E. Högström, G. Grosse, P. Schweitzer (2021a): Expanding infrastructure and growing anthropogenic impacts along Arctic coasts. Environmental Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3176

Bartsch, Annett, Pointner, Georg, & Nitze, Ingmar. (2021b). Sentinel-1/2 derived Arctic Coastal Human Impact dataset (SACHI) (Version 1) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4925911

Lantuit, Hugues; Overduin, Pier Paul; Couture, Nicole; Wetterich, Sebastian; Are, Felix; Atkinson, David; Brown, Jerry; Cherkashov, Georgy A; Drozdov, Dimitry S; Forbes, Donald Lawrence; Graves-Gaylord, Allison; Grigoriev, Mikhail N; Hubberten, Hans-Wolfgang; Jordan, James; Jorgenson, M Torre; Ødegård, Rune Strand; Ogorodov, Stanislav; Pollard, Wayne H; Rachold, Volker; Sedenko, Sergey; Solomon, Steve; Steenhuisen, Frits; Streletskaya, Irina; Vasiliev, Alexander (2012): The Arctic Coastal Dynamics Database: A New Classification Scheme and Statistics on Arctic Permafrost Coastlines. Estuaries and Coasts, 35(2), 383-400, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-010-9362-6