The high resolution topographic evolution of an active retrogressive thaw slump compiled from a decade of photography, ground surveys, laser scans and satellite imagery

Abstract:

Remote sensing imagery has enables the temporal reconstruction of thermal erosion features including lakes, shorelines and hillslope failures in remote Arctic locations, yet these planar data limit analysis to lines and areas. This study explores the application of varying techniques to reconstruct the three dimensional evolution of a single thermal erosion feature using a mixture of opportunistic oblique photos, ground surveys and satellite imagery. At the Selawik River retrogressive thaw slump in northwest Alaska, a bush plane collected oblique aerial photos when the feature was first discovered in 2004 and in subsequent years. These images were recently processed via Structure from Motion to generate georeferenced point clouds for the years prior to the initiation of our research. High resolution ground surveys in 2007, 2009 and 2010 were completed using robotic total station. Terrestrial laser scans (TLS) were collected in the summers of 2011 and 2012. Analysis of stereo satellite imagery from 2012 and 2015 enable continued monitoring of the feature after ground campaigns ended. As accurate coregistraion between point clouds is vital to topographic change detection, all prior and subsequent datasets were georeferenced to stable features observed in the 2012 TLS scan. Though this coregistration introduces uncertainty into each image, the magnitudes of uncertainty are significantly smaller than the topographic changes detected. Upslope retreat of the slump headwall generally decreases over time as the slump floor progresses from a highly dissected gully topography to a low relief, earthflow dominated depositional plane. The decreasing slope of the slump floor diminishes transport capacity, resulting in the progressive burial of the slump headwall, thus decreasing headwall retreat rates. This self-regulation of slump size based on feature relief and transport capacity suggests a capacity to predict the maximum size a given feature can expand to before stabilization.