The state of frozen ground in changing climate during IPY

Conference Theme

Many periglacial landforms, both mountainous and lowland can be studied within the vicinity of Longyearbyen. The construction of new buildings in Longyearbyen relies heavily on the development of new techniques for frozen ground foundations. The majority, if not all, of the buildings in Longyearbyen have their foundations seated within the permafrost.

Currently research is related to frozen ground dynamics, permafrost engineering and air ground interactions. Many research sites will be shown during the conference. Several of the locations were instrumented as part of the IPY project - TSP NORWAY and at several other sites international research partners have ongoing activities.

The conference will focus on both arctic and alpine permafrost research and recent achievements like the permafrost related IPY campaigns. Issues related to CO2-storage in permafrost areas will also be covered. The conference will also host official IPA Executive Committee and Council meetings.

Topics

• Permafrost modeling
• Permafrost monitoring
• Periglacial processes and landforms
• Gashydrates and CO2 deposition in permafrost areas
• Thermal state of permafrost and seasonally frozen ground
• Palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of permafrost
• Trace gasses and soils in permafrost environments
• Isotopes in permafrost
• Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM)
• Coastal and offshore permafrost
• Permafrost in the Antarctic
• Permafrost glacier interactions
• Permafrost sensitivity to climate change
• Extra terrestrial permafrost
• Remote sensing in permafrost studies
• Geohazards
• Infrastructure and climate change in permafrost area
• Challenges with infrastructure in permafrost areas
• Mining in permafrost areas
• Challenges in exploration/drilling in permafrost areas

Venue

EUCOP III is hosted by The University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS, which provides modern conference facilities. Modern hotels and cheaper student accommodation will be available for the conference participants. More information about accommodations is in the registration form.

Field focus

With the conference being located in the high arctic we take the opportunity to focus on field observations, methods, data series and associated techniques. Therefore we have included a half day field trip to 6 different permafrost study sites in and around Longyearbyen & Adventdalen. Groups of conference participants will be rotated between sites, where scientists and engineering guides will present ongoing research. Stops include:

• Solifluction in Endalen (Charles Harris & Antoni Lewkowicz)
• Ice-wedge dynamics in Adventdalen (Norikazu Matsuoka & Hanne H. Christiansen)
• UNISCALM and TSP boreholes in Adventdalen (Håvard Juliussen & Ketil Isaksen)
• Longyearbyen slope processes (Ole Humlum & Jan Otto Larsen)
• House infrastructure in Longyearbyen/UNIS on poles (Lars Grande & Jomar Finseth)
• Longyearbyen airport and seed vault (Arne Instanes & Ivar Horvli)

The last conference day is reserved for 6 different low cost one-day excursions, see http://www.eucop.no. If enough people are interested in these excursions we would like to offer them on the 2 days after the conference (18th & 19th June)