The gradual melting of permafrost in Canada poses significant risks to infrastructure and residential areas.
Thawing permafrost has substantial consequences for housing and transportation systems, potentially disrupting mobility and land-based activities.
The rate of permafrost melt is notably higher in Northern Canada, with the most pronounced impacts observed in Indigenous communities.
Canada’s Changing Climate report presents the country’s warming trend, warming twice as fast as the global average, affecting the ocean, the ocean’s ecosystems, the cryosphere, the movement and distribution of water, increasing sea levels, and the risk of floods.
Chapter five of the report provides a thorough discussion of the widespread impacts of permafrost thaw. According to the report, permafrost conditions are monitored through boreholes up to 20 meters deep that have operated for more than two decades, providing a baseline measurement of permafrost temperature.
Data collected from these boreholes in the last five years indicates that permafrost has warmed at many sites, with the greatest warming in the high Arctic.
Since 2000, the high arctic regions – including northern Mackenzie, Baffin Island, Resolute, Eureka, Alert, and Northern Quebec areas- permafrost in these areas has warmed between 0.7ºC and 0.9ºC at 24 m depth and more than 1.0ºC per decade at 15 m depth, which is consistent with greater increases in air temperature since 2000.
The report further highlights corroborating studies that document permafrost thaw in these high Arctic regions, resulting in significant land subsidence, widespread forest die-off, and the proliferation of thermokarst ponds.
These ponds, formed when ice-rich permafrost thaws and the ground collapses, create depressions that subsequently fill with water, drastically altering the landscape.
For instance, a study finds that over the last 50 years in northern Quebec, permafrost mounds (lithalsas or frost mounds) have been lost, leading to larger thermokarst ponds.
According to the report, climate projections indicate an increase in mean surface temperature in these present-day permafrost-rich areas by the end of the 21st century, further exacerbating permafrost melt.
The Conversation article explains how permafrost melts, its impacts, and what engineers in Canada are doing to protect critical infrastructure, homes, and structures.
According to the article, monitoring and modeling of permafrost show that its thaw is not driven by individual warm years but by the long-term balance between heat penetrating the ground and heat remaining in it.
Heat from the summer, especially with warming air temperatures, tends to penetrate deeper into the ground than winter can remove.
Snow cover during the winter season, particularly when it forms earlier in autumn and lingers into spring, can further insulate the ground and prevent cold from penetrating deep into the permafrost.
Buildings and infrastructure, particularly their underground components, are also sources of underground heat. While the heat from a single structure is negligible, as the built environment expands over time, the heat and impact it generates underground also accumulate.
To reduce their impact on permafrost, engineers employ solutions such as elevating structures on piles, minimizing ground disturbance, and installing passive cooling systems, including thermosyphons, which have proven effective.
However, with climate change effects such as shorter winters and insulating snow, solutions that previously worked become harder to sustain.
Engineers have found ways to block or manage subsurface heat by installing convection systems or thermosiphons and applying ventilated shoulder cooling.
Thermosiphons are passive cooling devices. They are vertical pipes filled with refrigerants and installed in the permafrost.
In winter, the cold air cools the refrigerant, causing it to sink, and warm refrigerant rises. This circulation removes heat from the permafrost and releases it into the cold winter air.
In summer, the thermosiphons naturally shut down. Ventilated shoulder cooling uses porous materials or air ducts installed along road shoulders to allow cold winter air to flow through these spaces, removing heat from the ground and the road. These essentially create natural air cooling with the road structure.
These engineered cooling systems counteract heat from the structure and infrastructure, as well as summer heat and warm air. During winter, they increase heat loss from permafrost foundations, thereby cooling the ground under critical infrastructure and buildings.
Permafrost thawing, if not adequately addressed, can have serious implications for Northern Canada’s critical infrastructure that indigenous peoples rely on, such as airstrips, roads, fuel, water, power lines, and communication systems, all of which require stable ground to function.
Sources
Ahmadfard, M., Ghalayini, I., Dworkin, s. (2025, December 17). Canada’s North is warming from the ground up, and our infrastructure isn’t ready. The Conversation. Retrieved form https://theconversation.com/canadas-north-is-warming-from-the-ground-up-and-our-infrastructure-isnt-ready-272005
Bush, E. and Lemmen, D.S., editors (2019): Canada’s Changing Climate Report; Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON. 444 p. Retrieved from https://changingclimate.ca/site/assets/uploads/sites/2/2020/06/CCCR_FULLREPORT-EN-FINAL.pdf
Goering, D. (2022, November ). Improved Permafrost Protection Using Air Convection and Ventilated Shoulder Cooling Systems – Final Project Report. Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Retrieved from https://dot.alaska.gov/stwddes/research/assets/pdf/4000_185.pdf
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