2022 AGM and Yellowknife Geoscience Forum

The 2022 NSERC PermafrostNet AGM and Yellowknife Geoscience Forum were held in Yellowknife between the 14th and 17th of November 2022.

The 2022 AGM was an in-person meeting hosted in conjunction with the 50th Yellowknife Geoscience forum. The AGM focused on the needs of partners, the progress of the network projects and future activities and in the evening the network hosted an Open House for the public to find out more about the thawing permafrost and meet the researchers studying it.

The Geoscience forum included two days of permafrost talks and posters, including two permafrost specific technical sessions: Changing Permafrost Landscapes, and Permafrost Monitoring Networks co-chaired by network members, as well as “Soapbox Talks” a scheduled 3-5 minute oral presentation by students who were presenting a poster. Soapbox talks were given with the poster as a single presentation slide projected on the screen.

A group of people sit in a circle having a discussion in a conference room with posters on the walls. Some are listening, some are speaking, and a few have laptops or notepads. One person stands near the posters.

Quotes from discussions

Need infrastructure to handle large amounts of monitoring data.

Theme 1 discussion

Transportation corridors provide more sustainable monitoring areas.

Theme 2 discussion

Mindless monitoring is to be avoided.

Theme 2 discussion

Transition to monitoring within community by community.

Theme 2 discussion

You can’t adapt if you don’t know what is going to happen.

Theme 3 discussion

Don’t overburden communities, leverage existing links.

Capstone discussion

Stories are important.

Capstone discussion
Download summaries of all the research projects

Presentations

There were a range of research presentations at the AGM and by network members at the Geoscience forum in regular sessions and SoapBox short formats. Some of the presentations are available below.

David Moore and Stephan Gruber

Titre: Toward a vision and strategy for Canadian permafrost knowledge and Northern needs.

Stephan Gruber and David Moore presentation 2022 AGM
Slide with PermafrostNet logo and text: “Toward a vision and strategy for Canadian permafrost knowledge. Northern needs. Stephan Gruber, David Moore – and many more that have contributed.”.

Duane Froese (Theme 1)

Titre: Permafrost characterization and ground ice potential.

Duane Froese Theme 1 summary presentation
A person stands by a small body of water in a grassy, open landscape with a tree line and distant hills under a blue sky. Logos for PermafrostNet, NSERC, Canada, and Carleton University are displayed.

Teddi Herring (Theme 1)

Titre: Creating a database of geoelectrical surveys of permafrost to assess changing permafrost conditions in Northern Canada.

A woman with curly brown hair sits on a chair, holding a notebook and pen, with her hand resting on her chin, appearing thoughtful. She is wearing a dark sweater and jeans. The background is an indoor setting.
Presentation slide with Northern lights above a forest and text: “Creating a database of geoelectrical surveys of permafrost to assess changing permafrost conditions in Northern Canada.” Names and affiliations shown.

Mahya Roustaei (Theme 1)

Titre: Estimating excess ice using industrial computed tomography scanning and comparison with established methods.

A woman with shoulder-length dark hair, wearing a white shirt and black blazer, smiles while holding a paper cup in a room with rows of chairs and a few seated people in the background.
A snowy landscape with tire tracks leads to mountains under a blue sky. Text overlay presents a research title on estimating excess ice, with authors and university logos at the bottom.

Alexandre Chiasson (Theme 1)

Titre: Dendritically-drained Peat Plateaus: A Distinctive Permafrost Peatland Landform of the Central Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories.

A man with a beard and long hair in a purple hoodie stands smiling beside a scientific research poster about the community of Tulita, Northwest Territories, which includes charts, maps, and diagrams.

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A red helicopter sits on a grassy, sparsely wooded peat plateau under a blue sky. Text overlays describe a scientific study by University of Alberta researchers on permafrost landforms in the Central Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories.

Toni Lewkowicz and Trevor Lantz (Theme 2)

Titre: Monitoring Permafrost change.

A man wearing a red sweater and glasses stands at a podium with a microphone, giving a presentation. A large projected slide behind him reads “Theme 2: Monitoring permafrost change.”.

Usman Iqbal Ahmed (Theme 2)

Titre: Linear Infrastructure and Permafrost Monitoring with Airborne SAR and Optical System.

Emma Street (Theme 2)

Titre: Exploring Traditional Knowledge of Permafrost in the Gwich’in Settlement Area and Inuvialuit Settlement Region.

Jocelyn Hayley (Theme 4)

Titre: Hazards and impacts associated with permafrost thaw.

Jocelyn Hayley Theme 4 presentation 2022 AGM

Multi-year permafrost change tracked using ground temperatures and repeat electrical resistivity tomography, Alaska Highway corridor by Antoni Lewkowicz et al.

Monitoring and Long-term Predictions of Thermoprobe Performance at Gunghi Creek, NWT by Ryley Beddoe et al. 

Estimating excess ice using industrial computed tomography scanning and comparison with established methods by Mahya Roustae et al. 

Creating a database of geoelectrical surveys of permafrost to assess changing permafrost conditions in Northern Canada by Teddi Herring et al. 

Dendritically-drained peat plateaus: a distinctive permafrost peatland landform of the central Mackenzie Valley, Northwest Territories by Alexandre Chiasson et al. 

The Northwest Territories Thermokarst Mapping Collective: A northern-driven collaborative mapping framework for understanding the distribution and effects of permafrost thaw by Steve Kokelj et al. 

Measuring coastal erosion in a permafrost environment by Brian Moorman et al. 

Inventory of thaw-driven mass wasting in the NWT by Ashley Rudy et al.

Statistical analysis of ground surface temperature simulations under different testing conditions in the Northwest Territories Tundra by Hannah Macdonell et al.

Linear Infrastructure & Permafrost Monitoring with Airborne SAR and Photogrametry Data by Usman Iqbal Ahmedet al. 

Ensemble simulations of transient permafrost change by terrain type – a conversation starter for developing permafrost climate services by Galina Jonat et al.

Setting and failure mechanisms of the recent Johnson River permafrost landslide in the central Mackenzie Valley, NWT by Joseph Young et al. 

Next Generation 3D Ground Ice Map by Bingqian Zhang.

Posters

Posters were presented by network members at both the NSERC PermafrostNet AGM and the Geoscience forum. You can see the posters below.

Best student poster presentation

NAPEG’s education foundation presented an award for best poster presentation to Hannah Macdonell (Carleton University) for her poster titled: Statistical analysis of ground surface temperature simulations under different testing conditions in the Northwest Territories Tundra.

Congratulations to Hannah and thank you to all the the poster and soapbox talk presenters.

Click on the right-hand side images below to see the full poster pdf.

Allison Plourde

Titre: Measuring Surface Displacement Using Winter SAR.

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Bingqian Zhang

Titre: Constructing 3-D Ground Ice Map Using Deep Learning on Regional Borehole Data.

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Galina Jonat

Titre: Ensemble simulations of permafrost change by terrain type.

Pia Blake and Emilie Stewart-Jones

Titre: Permafrost in rock walls of Western Canada.

Hannah MacDonell

Titre: Statistical analysis of ground surface temperature simulations in the Northwest Territories tundra.

Hosein Fereydooni

Titre: Revealing Ground Ice by Spectral-Induced Polarization.

Joseph Young

Titre: Initial investigation of the recent Johnson River permafrost landslide in the central Mackenzie Valley, NWT.

Khatereh Roghangar

Titre: A review of design and adaptation of embankment infrastructure built on permafrost under a changing climate.

Rae Landriau

Titre: Stability analysis of drilling waste sumps, western Arctic Canada.

Sheida Majidi

Titre: Effects of permafrost degradation, geohazards and flooding on the performance and integrity of the Hudson Bay railway.

Stephan Gruber

Titre: How can we turn permafrost knowledge into action?

Usman Iqbal

Titre: Linear Infrastructure & Permafrost Monitoring with Airborne SAR & Photogrammetry data.

Zakieh Mohammadi

Titre: An approach for qualitative evaluation of permafrost thaw-settlement potential.