Abstracts

Assessment Of Foundation Sensitivity To Climate Change In The Northwest Territories

T. Eward Hoeve¹, Fuqun Zhou, and Aining Zhang
¹EBA Engineering Consultants Ltd.
ehoeve@eba.ca

The Northwest Territories (NWT) is within the zone of permafrost. Many buildings, particularly in the northern NWT, are founded on permafrost. The last 30 years have exhibited increased warming trends. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2001) projects that the average global surface temperature is likely to increase between 1.4 and 5.8 °C by 2100 as a result of various greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Continued warming will result in increased ground temperatures and thaw of permafrost. Thaw of permafrost can be expected to result in ground settlement and increased seasonal freeze-thaw effects. For buildings founded on or in permafrost, this can be expected to bring about foundation distress. This presentation describes an assessment of the sensitivity of building foundation infrastructure in the NWT to climate change. A multiple accounts analysis approach was used. Thermal and physical sensitivity of the terrain and infrastructure sensitivity are defined and evaluated. Thermal sensitivity is generally greatest in the southern NWT, in the area of discontinuous permafrost. Physical sensitivity is generally greatest in the northern NWT. Overall, building foundations in the Inuvik region were determined to the most sensitive to climate change impacts.

2005-04-05