Based on the results of research in the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions and the Clean Arctic - Vostok - 77 expedition, scientists proposed a system for monitoring permafrost in Russia, said Oleg Volkov, head of the Arctic Resource Center Scientific Research Support Fund, to TASS.
According to him, the system may combine public and private partnership to fulfill governmental tasks with the capabilities of companies operating in the permafrost territories.
"We will report on the need to create a permafrost monitoring system and involve not only government departments and institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, but also private companies carrying digital technologies, state corporations operating in permafrost territories," Volkov said.
According to scientists, the geotechnical monitoring system will make it possible to predict in time the danger of destruction of residential apartment buildings and industrial facilities built on permafrost. In the Murmansk region, studies have revealed a different rate of permafrost degradation, which was considered indefinite a few decades ago. At the same time, the dynamics of its changes were not taken into account when constructing facilities in the Arctic.
"More than half of our country's territory is on permafrost. Almost nowhere else in the world are buildings built on permafrost above one floor. In the USA, Canada, Denmark, Norway, they prefer to choose rocky foundations for construction, therefore, it is Russia that will have to establish detailed monitoring of the processes occurring within permafrost soils," said Oksana Tolstykh, chief of staff of the Clean Arctic - Vostok -77 expedition and a State Duma expert.
Scientists intend to make their proposals to the Federation Council, where a meeting on the creation of this system will be held at the end of April.
Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished
