Extracting water body data based on SDWI and threshold segmentation:A case study in permafrost area surrounding Salt Lake in Hoh Xil,Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China

There are a large number of lakes,rivers,and other natural water bodies distributed in the permafrost area of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau(QTP).The changes in water bodies will affect the distribution of water resources in sur-rounding areas and downstream areas,resulting in environmental impact and bringing potential flood disasters,which will induce more serious issues and problems in alpine and high-altitude areas with a fragile habitat(such as the QTP in China).Generally,effective,reasonable,and scientific monitoring of large-scale water bodies can not only document the changes in water bodies intuitively,but also provide important theoretical reference for subsequent environmental impact prediction,and disaster prevention and mitigation in due course of time.The large-scale water extraction technology derived from the optical remote sensing(RS)image is seriously affected by clouds,bringing about large differences among the extracted water result products.Synthetic aperture radar(SAR)RS technology has the unique advantage characteristics of all-weather,all-day,strong penetration,and not being affected by clouds,which is hopeful in extracting water body data,especially for days with cloudy weather.The data extraction of large-scale water bodies based on SAR images can effectively avoid the errors caused by clouds that become prevalent at present.In this paper,the Hoh Xil Salt Lake on the QTP and its surrounding five lakes are taken as the research objects.The 2-scene Sentinel-1 SAR image data covering the whole area on 22 August 2022 was used to verify the feasibility of extracting water body data in permafrost zones.Furthermore,on 22 August 2022,the wealth here was cloudy,which made the optical RS images,e.g.,Sentinel-2 images full of clouds.The results show that:using the Sentinel-1 image and threshold segmentation method to extract water body data is efficient and effective with excellent results in permafrost areas.Concretely,the Sentinel-1 dual-polarized water index(SDWI),calculated by combining dual vertical–vertical(VV)polarized and verti-cal–horizontal(VH)polarized data is a useful index for water extraction and the result is better than each of the VV or VH polarized images.

Effects of confining pressure and temperature on strength and deformation behavior of frozen saline silty clay

Buildings are always affected by frost heave and thaw settlement in cold regions,even where saline soil is present.This paper describes the triaxial testing results of frozen silty clay with high salt content and examines the in-fluence of confining pressure and temperature on its mechanical characteristics.Conventional triaxial compression tests were conducted under different confining pressures(0.5–7.0 MPa)and temperatures(-6℃,-8℃,-10℃,and-12℃).The test results show that when the confining pressure is less than 1 MPa,the frozen saline silty clay is dominated by brittle behavior with the X-shaped dilatancy failure mode.As the confining pressure increases,the sample gradually transitions from brittle to plastic behavior.The strength of frozen saline silty clay rises first and then decreases with increasing confining pressure.The improved Duncan-Chang hyperbolic model can describe the stress-strain relationship of frozen saline silty clay.And the parabolic strength criterion can be used to describe the strength evolution of frozen saline silty clay.The function relation of strength parameters with temperature is obtained by fitting,and the results of the parabolic strength criterion are in good agreement with the experimental results,especially when confining pressure is less than 5 MPa.Therefore,the study has important guiding significance for design and construction when considering high salinity soil as an engineering material in cold regions.

Definition of failure criterion for frozen soil under directional shear-stress path

A series of directional shear tests on remolded frozen soil was carried out at 10°C by using a hollow cylinder apparatus to study failure criterion under a directional shear-stress path.Directional shear tests were conducted at five shear rates(10,20,30,40,and 50 kPa/min)and five intermediate principal stress coefficients(b=0,0.25,0.5,0.75,and 1),with the mean principal stress(p=4.5 MPa)kept constant.The results show that the torsional strength and the generalized strength both increase with the increase of the shear rates.According to the failure modes of frozen soil under different shear rates,the specimens present obvious plastic failure and shear band;and the torsional shear component dominates the failure modes of hollow cylindrical specimens.A shear rate of 30 kPa/min is chosen as the loading rate in the directional shear tests of frozen soil.The shape of the failure curve in theπplane is dependent on the directional anglesαof the major prin cipal stress.It is reasonable to use the strain-hardening curves to define the deviatoric stress value atγg=15%(generalized shear strain)as the failure criterion of frozen soil under a directional shear-stress path.

Viscous creep of ice-rich permafrost debris in a recently uncovered proglacial area in the Tianshan Mountains, China

Since the Little Ice Age and as a consequence of climate warming,many recently deglaciated forefields have become and will continue to evolve into large ice-debris complexes exposed to periglacial processes and environment.Such transitional processes have significant implications for geomorphologic shaping and water supply for the downstream communities,especially in arid regions,but our understanding of their evolutionary processes and their potential geomorphic and hydrological impacts is stil limited.A landform transition from partly debris-covered glaciers to ice-rich permafrost debris undergoing slow viscous creep was revealed in the Aerzailaikunai Valley in the eastern Tianshan Mountains in China based on the results of in-situ observations and measurements(boreholes,ground temperature monitoring,electrical resistivity tomography surveys,and continuous global positioning system measurements,among others).The internal structure of ice-tll mixture contains pure ice layers,supersaturated frozen sands with ice lenses,and ice-bearing blocks with maximum volumetric contents of heterogeneous ice at 35%-60%.Beneath an 1.5-m-thick active layer,permafrost reached far into the underlying bedrock with the mean annual ground temperature of-2.1℃ at the depth of 20 m.The higher surface velocities(with an accumulative displacement of 65 mm from October 2019 to May 2020)and extremely high electrical resistivity(several million Ω m)of the debris-covered glacier margin were in sharp contrast to those of the progressively stabilizing ground surface(up to 16 mm)and the lower zones with relatively smaler electrical resistivity(several thousand Ω m).Combined with the borehole stratigraphy(higher rock content),monitored ground temperatures(permafrost environment),lower electrical resistance(ice-rich moraine),and continuous global positioning system results(viscous creeping),this study documents a transition from glacial to periglacial conditions,materials and processes characteristic of cold-dry ice-clad mountains,and reinforces the theory of the transition from debris-covered glaciers into morainically originated rock glaciers.