Siberia... Climate change weakens the ability of buildings to resist warming

2023-11-25 2023-11-25T16:44:05Z

Arabia Weather - In Siberia, the melting of "permanent soil ice" exposes the region to many risks as a result of the damage caused by warming to facilities and infrastructure, forcing the authorities there to develop means to predict the trends of warming and the effects of climate change.

Siberia.. Climate change weakens the ability of buildings to resist warming

Yakutsk in Siberia, with a population of about 350,000, is the largest city in the world built on permafrost. This fact carries many risks associated with melting ice, including the inability of buildings to withstand the effects of climate warming.

The unique climatic conditions surrounding Yakutsk pose significant challenges to the construction methods used there, taking into account the peculiarities of the local soil and the large temperature differences that can occur.

Yakutsk has seen heavy construction activity in recent years, which poses additional pressure, as most of the construction techniques used there rely on driving stakes into frozen soil, allowing air to circulate beneath the building and reducing soil temperature rise.

In the 1960s, it was possible to install these stakes at a depth of 6 meters and that was sufficient, but with changing climate conditions and their effects on soil temperature, it is now necessary to install them at greater depths. If these requirements are not complied with, the structures may become unstable, and may suffer from cracks and fissures.

Director of the Laboratory of Informatics Forecasting at the Russian Far Eastern University, Sergey Stepanov, comments on this topic, saying: “We have begun to detect emergency situations in some facilities that sometimes threaten their structures, especially with the increase in construction activity in Siberia. In my opinion, this is due to climatic factors.” And overlapping with each other, the local soil consists of layers, the upper layer of which melts in summer and freezes in winter, and this layer extends about 3 meters in Yakutsk.”

Stepanov added: "Underneath this layer, there is frost, which forms the depth of stabilization of the stakes, and this depends greatly on the stability of the ice layer that we are referring to."

The laboratory, whose research is supervised by Stepanov, develops three-dimensional computer predictions that shed light on what may happen to the structure of the region in the coming years, and laboratory experts estimate the possibility of building buildings or not in specific locations.

Other important research focuses on studying and developing materials used in construction, as part of the response to environmental challenges. In this context, the researcher in the field of concrete structures, Timur Nazarov, explains that they are studying the interaction of various types of concrete structures with climate changes, as they evaluate their durability under the influence of various conditions and temperatures. This allows them to understand the effect of warming on the composition of concrete structures.

The challenges of warming and building density in Siberia pose additional challenges to infrastructure and habitation in the region, and complicate future conservation efforts.

Expectations indicate the need to take more measures to confront climate fluctuations, and some of these measures include the presence of black pipes installed near some buildings, where the soil is cooled by pumping cold air to the point of freezing.