Synopsis: Permafrost Engineering in a Warming Climate—Current State and Future Strategy

The permafrost engineering profession is challenged with the next stage of evolution, as the last few decades have seen a steady rise in permafrost temperature. The changing environment is generating uncertainty regarding safe engineering, and longevity, and the result is often overly conservative designs that greatly increase development costs. The ASCE Cold Regions Engineering Division (CRED) committees agreed a review of the current state of the profession and an outline of a future strategy were needed. The International Permafrost Association (IPA) sanctioned an action group to perform a workshop and look at the permafrost engineering discipline, determine knowledge gaps, and suggest a path forward. This paper presents a synopsis of the more important findings such as: the need for programmatic work in developing ‘living’ permafrost temperature forecast tools, technical advances in methods to design for increasing thaw sensitivity, designing and planning with threats from altered hydrology (thermo-erosion) and slope instabilities, and techniques to mitigate thaw-affected vertical and horizontal infrastructure, to name a few. Most importantly, the engineering profession, with the help of universities, must promote the backfill of the retiring frozen ground engineering workforce.