An application of a new method in permafrost environment assessment of Muli mining area in Qinghai-Tibet Plateau,China |
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Authors: | Wei Cao Yu Sheng Yinghong Qin Jing Li Jichun Wu |
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Affiliation: | (1) State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, 730000, Gansu, China;(2) School of Geographic and Oceanographic Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, 210093, Jiangsu, China;(3) Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931-1295, USA |
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Abstract: | The permafrost environment in the Muli mining area, an opencast mining site in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, China, is now undergoing
significant degradation because of the ongoing mining activities. The permafrost environment in this mining site had already
been evaluated by previous study, in which analytic hierarchy process was applied. Although this method can roughly characterize
the permafrost environment of this mining site, it has limitations by being easily affected by man-made factors. In view of
this limitation, this study attempts to employ a new method, the catastrophe progression method, to estimate the current stage
of the permafrost environment in this mining area. The results show that, by catastrophe progression method, currently the
calculated indexes of the permafrost freezing–thawing disintegration, permafrost thermal stability, permafrost ecological
fragility, and the permafrost environment are 0.43 (general situation), 0.77 (general situation), 0.71 (bad situation) and
0.83 (general situation), respectively. These values imply that the permafrost environment has been damaged by anthropologic
activities to a certain degree and potentially may be further degenerated. However, at this degree, a new equilibrium stage
of permafrost environment could be achieved if the current state of environmental degradation is stabilized and treatments
are constructed against further damages. |
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