Resilience and Adaptation to the Effects of Permafrost Degradation-Induced Coastal Erosion – Orthomosaic Images and Digital Surface Models for Wainwright, Alaska, United States 2022-2024

This project is part of Navigating the New Arctic (NNA) which addresses converging scientific challenges in the rapidly changing Arctic. Specifically, the goal of this project is to better understand ice-rich permafrost at local, regional, and circumpolar scales. Orthomosaic images and digital surface models (DSM) were processed from unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) data for an area of study along the coast of Wainwright in northwestern Alaska, USA. This dataset provides a record of coastal change due to permafrost thaw and degradation as well as spatial data useful for validation of land surface deformation models. The first initial survey in 2022 was flown using a DJI Phantom 4 RTK (P4RTK) and a DJI D-RTK 2 Mobile Base Station for real-time kinematic (RTK) positioning. For the following surveys, we used a DJI Matrice M300 RTK (M300RTK) drone equipped with a DJI Zenmuse P1 camera and a 35mm (millimeter) lens (45MP (megapixels)). An Emlid RS3 GNSS base station was used for RTK positioning. All images were processed using Agisoft Metashape (v.2.2.0) following a standard three-dimensional mapping processing workflow utilizing ground control points measured in the field for horizontal and vertical corrections and reliable reproduction from year to year. All DSM and orthomosaic files are projected using NAD83 State Plane 4 and ellipsoidal heights in meters. The community of Wainwright is located along the Chukchi Sea in northwest Alaska, USA, approximately 116 km (kilometers) southwest of Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow). Landcover units include dwarf shrubs, Graminoid-moss tundra, and moss tundra (wet and moist non-acidic).