Vector dataset of manually mapped retrogressive thaw slumps from very high-resolution multispectral imagery in the Russian High Arctic between 2011 and 2020

We present a comprehensive inventory of retrogressive thaw slumps (RTS) for six study sites in the Russian High Arctic covering an area of more than 600 km². The sites are located on the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, Kolguev Island, Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island, and Taymyr Peninsula in ice-rich permafrost characterized by either buried glacial ice or syngenetically formed Yedoma permafrost deposits. This data publication contains geospatial polygon vector files of the individual mapped slumps across multiple time slices. The mapping was performed on multispectral imagery of very high-resolution satellite sensors, including PlanetScope (3m ground resolution), RapidEye (5m), Pléiades (0.5m), and SPOT (1.5m). Cloud free images were acquired between 2011 and 2020 and exist for annual or close-to-annual time steps depending on their availability. Additional data sets such as the ArcticDEM, the Esri Satellite base map, and Tasseled Cap Landsat Trends were used to support the mapping process. The identification and digitization of thaw slumps as polygons (in UTM coordinate reference system) was performed in QGIS 10.3. A total number of 3466 individual RTS were mapped between 2011 or 2013 and 2020. In addition, for the coastal slumps, change distances from headwalls and bluff bases were calculated in ArcMap 10.5 using the Digital Shoreline Analysis System (DSAS) tool version 5 over the study period (2011/2013-2020). […]