Analysis of the Permafrost Degradation under High Embankments in Cold Regions

Abstract As one of the most significant environmental hazards, the degradation of permafrost will cause many harmful effects on environment, engineering and ecology, etc. To evaluate the impact of asphalt pavement road on permafrost degradation, the Qinghai-Tibet Highway (QTH) which passes through the permafrost region of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau was studied in this paper. The results show that when the embankment is 3m high and the top of the embankment is not wider than 18m, the existence of the pavement structure could obviously protect permafrost from melting in cold permafrost region during the 20-year road service life. However, the results also indicate that whichever the embankment type is, this “protection” effect comes at the cost of making the permafrost more sensitive and fragile. This means that the existence of asphalt pavement will still pose a great threat to the cold region environments protection if no effective active cooling measures are applied.