Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

2016 was the hottest year on record following on previous temperature records set in 2014 and 2015. In fact, the top 20 global temperature anomalies are entirely from the last 22 years. Climate change has the effect of increased global temperatures as well as a higher frequency of extreme weather events such as droughts and wet periods. Regionally, Canada's arctic experiences amplified temperature anomalies, which were as high as 4oC in 2016. Mean precipitation across Canada has also increased almost 20% from 1948 to 2009. Canada is especially susceptible to the effects of climate change with our Arctic and areas with reactive soils in particularly precarious positions. In the Arctic, sea ice cover has been decreasing since 1968 and snow cover since 1972. In the prairies, expansive soils react with increased wetting and drying cycles to damage linear infrastructure and buildings. In both areas, soil-climate interactions cause damage to infrastructure. What is affected by climate change-driven permafrost degradation? All infrastructure in the north including residences, commercial buildings, Canada's defence systems, airports, winter and all-weather roads, railways, and pipelines, which are constructed in permafrost. What is affected by increased frequency of drought and wet periods? Thousands of kilometers of roads, rail, and pipelines as well as residential, commercial and government buildings in the Prairies. Unfortunately, the majority of this infrastructure has not been designed to account for climate change effects. The Canadian Government should be leading the efforts to assess, prepare, and act on climate change. However, 14 out of 19 federal departments have not fully assessed the risks of climate change leaving much of the federal government's $66 billion of assets at risk. The devastating effects of climate change-driven permafrost degradation and increased wet-dry events will affect Canadian society, sustainable life in the arctic, government infrastructure, economic growth, resource development, and Canada's defence systems. Dr Siemens will use an integrated field-experimental-computational approach to examine, investigate, and provide solutions for these urgent and important questions for Canadians: How will arctic infrastructure remain sustainable in the face of climate change-driven permafrost degradation? How can the service life of infrastructure constructed in expansive soils be extended to survive climate change effects? This grant will support 6 Phd Students to perform integrated field-experimental-computational studies to assess the impact of climate change on at-risk infrastructure and to devise sustainability strategies to mitigate climate change effects.