Role of Climatic and Non-climatic Factors on Land Use and Land Cover Change in the Arctic: A Comparative Analysis of Vorkuta and Salekhard
Open AccessArctic climate is changing at a twice higher rate than elsewhere resulting in changes in natural ecosystems and environment. On top of the environmental changes, industrialization and urbanization have further transformed Arctic landscapes in areas of economic activities. This work focuses on two Russian Arctic urban centers for resource development: Vorkuta and Salekhard. Located 150 km apart and sharing similar climatic and environmental conditions, these two cities are on different socioeconomic trajectories. An interdisciplinary approach of dense stacking and random forest classifier employing the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform has been taken to understand at what extent the landscape has been fragmented by climate change and anthropogenic activities from 1986 to 2017. The study demonstrates that climate change increased vegetation productivity and led to a steady greening effect throughout the areas of interest. In both cities, a declining trend has been observed in albedo over the past few decades. Studies indicate that pollution and emission from industrial activities contribute to observed shrub abundance. The workflow presented in this study using a previously developed remote sensing methodology can reasonably be implemented for other Arctic cities, thereby increasing opportunities to monitor Arctic ecosystems in an efficient and cost-effective way.
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