Russian regions warned of sudden costs due to melting permafrost

Russian regions may soon face unplanned expenses for the restoration of buildings and utilities that will collapse due to the melting of permafrost. Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Clean Arctic – East – 77 expedition Oleg Volkov shared this opinion with TASS on the sidelines of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF).

To solve the problem, he called for regions to switch to a unified permafrost monitoring system. “Comprehensive geotechnical monitoring of such soils will allow our country to benefit from climate change, rather than suffer from it,” Volkov said following the EEF session “Non-Permafrost.” He recalled that permafrost occupies almost 65 percent of Russia’s territory.

The session also featured scientists who presented the latest data on permafrost research in the Murmansk Region, Yamal and Taimyr. The experts called for the introduction of a law on permafrost in Russia, which would determine measures for creating a system of geotechnical observations of frozen soils.

In July, the Russian government approved a regulation on state background monitoring of permafrost. Thanks to it, Russia will begin to conduct long-term observations of phenomena and processes occurring in permafrost soils, as well as analyze, evaluate and predict the state of permafrost.