IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v346y2026ics0360544226004494.html

Applicability of sustainable energy-driven and permafrost-friendly embankment designs from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Siberian Arctic

Author

Listed:
  • Zhou, Yanqiao
  • Zhang, Mingyi
  • Lai, Yuanming
  • Harbor, Jon
  • Pei, Wansheng
  • Bai, Ruiqiang
  • You, Zhilang
  • Li, Renwei
  • Chen, Yanyan
  • Li, Guanji
  • Ran, Jiachuan

Abstract

Historically, the Siberian Arctic (SA) permafrost has maintained remarkable thermal stability, leading to a lack of permafrost-coexistent embankment designs. Under future climate scenarios, inappropriate embankments may exacerbate permafrost degradation, threatening SA's transport infrastructure sustainability. Adopting Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP)'s proven sustainable energy-driven and permafrost-friendly embankment designs is promising. Our findings suggest that under the SSP5-8.5 scenario, adopting typical QTP embankments could preserve about 93.4% of the SA's permafrost between 2021 and 2040. Alarmingly, this protective effect diminishes over time—dropping to just 50.5% by the end of the century. These figures point to both the promise and the limitations of such designs, reinforcing the need for further, region-specific assessments.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhou, Yanqiao & Zhang, Mingyi & Lai, Yuanming & Harbor, Jon & Pei, Wansheng & Bai, Ruiqiang & You, Zhilang & Li, Renwei & Chen, Yanyan & Li, Guanji & Ran, Jiachuan, 2026. "Applicability of sustainable energy-driven and permafrost-friendly embankment designs from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau to the Siberian Arctic," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:346:y:2026:i:c:s0360544226004494
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2026.140346
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544226004494
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2026.140346?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:346:y:2026:i:c:s0360544226004494. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.