Climate warming leads to the aggravation of infrastructures and environmental risks in permafrost regions. There are few reports about the interaction between airport runway and permafrost foundation. Based on long term field monitoring, remote sensing and comparative analysis approaches, our study quantitatively investigates the impacts of runway and climate on permafrost in northernmost China, and also the engineering problems are analyzed. Results show that the atmospheric inversion in winter controls the regional permafrost distribution in the study area. Ground surface warmed significantly after vegetation removal because of the runway construction. The maximum temperature difference among the forest, the swamp and the bared gravel can reach to 30 degrees C in summer. Such surface alterations caused abnormally rapid degradation of permafrost within the context of climate warming. The rate of permafrost table deepening varies from 0.461 to 0.590 m/a over the 2007-2017 periods. Also, the annual mean ground temperature at the 13 m depth increased at a rate of 0.054-0.130 degrees C /a. Its annual increase value is 0 similar to 0.47 degrees C with an average 0.108 +/- 0.124 degrees C. In turn, permafrost degradation caused runway safety problems, such as the decrease of bearing capacity, increase of longitudinal slope, decrease of planeness, pavement cracks, density decrease of the foundation and cement concrete pavement cavity. However, in the natural places, the permafrost remained relatively stable and didn't show a continued degradation trend. The permafrost table fluctuated with air temperature changes. Its interannual fluctuation range is 0 similar to 0.25 m, with an average 0.08 +/- 0.08 m. The interannual fluctuation range of ground temperature at the depth of 13 m is 0.01 similar to 0.10 degrees C, with an average 0.06 +/- 0.03 degrees C. In addition, the zero curtain phenomena were observed at the study site. Once the zero curtain periods were over, the ground temperature warmed rapidly. These findings have positive implication for new runway design in permafrost regions.

Rising temperatures due to climate change can significantly impact the freeze-thaw condition of airport pavements in cold regions. This case study investigates the implications of warming temperatures on the freeze-thaw penetration and frost heave of pavements in critical airports across Canada. To this end, different methods were used in the quantification process through climate change simulations considering emission scenario RCP8.5 in 20 and 40 year time horizons. The results show that climate change would have different design implications for airport pavements, depending on their location. The predictions suggest a shallower frost penetration depth, and possibly less frost heave, for the airports not underlain by permafrost, while airports over permafrost areas might experience an increase in thickness of the active layer, ranging from 41 to 57 percent, by 2061. Among the different methods used in this study, it was observed that some methods performed better in predicting the frost depth of fine soils, while others worked better in the frost depth prediction of coarse soils. The results indicate the need for more mechanistic models to provide a more realistic prediction of freeze-thaw penetration, as compared to existing empirical models.