Relative Factors of Beihei Highway’s Ground Deformation Interpretation Based on Remote-Sensing Imagery Technology

Abstract

Beihei Highway is located in the northern region of the Lesser Khingan Range, near the southern permafrost border of northeast China, which belongs to permafrost belt of high latitudes. The effect of global warming and other natural factors, coupled with urbanization and socio-economic developments has led to continuous melting and structural changes in the permafrost bed and has caused the southern border of the permafrost zone to shift northwards. These changes aggravated the instability of the southern area of the permafrost, one of which is the collapse of a highway embankment which occurred along the Beihei Highway. What threatens the security of the Beihei Highway is that many landslides exist on the highway and most of these landslides are unstable. Remote sensing imagery data from LANDSET ETM + and ENVISAT ASAR were used to study the environmental impact of the highway roadbed slope instability in sensitive and domain area of permafrost degenerate zone and to get the basis for assessment and early warming of deformation, destabilization and other disasters. The authors interpreted and extracted ground temperature, soil moisture and other factors relative to highway deformation. From local survey records, information obtained from weather station and historical imagery from GOOGLE EARTH shows that there is a comparative analysis with interpreted consequences, which can commendably reflect practical ground surface situation and show correlation of various factors. Result may show interpreted consequences’ accuracy for using remote sensing techniques and its fundamental importance for monitoring and early warning deformation disasters caused by climate change and permafrost degradation.