Long-term landscape impact of petroleum exploration, Melville Island, Canadian High Arctic

Industrial land use such as petroleum exploration and infrastructure development has important and lasting impacts on Arctic landscapes. Detailed, site-level investigations have noted impacts that include vehicle tracks, surface and vegetation alteration, soil compaction, and degradation of ice wedge features. We investigated the long-term impact of an extended period of hydrocarbon exploration on Melville Island in the Canadian High Arctic using available remotely sensed data supplemented with field observations over a ~370 [km.sup.2] area. Aerial photographs from 1959, 1972, and 1977 and recent satellite imagery (2011 and 2013) were used to determine the effects of industrial activity over periods corresponding to pre-activity, mid-activity, and post-activity. We show that vehicle tracks, site disturbance, and vegetative impacts are still evident after 40 years in this area. Permafrost has degraded at sites with concentrated activity (drill sites, airstrips) and changes to vegetation are clearly discernable. The results demonstrate the utility of this approach for assessment of land use impacts on High Arctic landscapes and provide a means to determine locations for more detailed site-specific field studies. These results may contribute to strategies for environmental monitoring in remote areas where access is impractical or resource intensive. Key words: land use impact, hydrocarbon exploration, vehicle tracks, terrain impact, vegetation change, thermokarst, Canadian High Arctic. L'utilisation industrielle des terres comme l'exploration petroliere et le developpement de l'infrastructure a des effets importants et durables sur les paysages arctiques. Des enquetes approfondies au niveau des sites ont indique des effets dont des traces de vehicules, des modifications de surface et de la vegetation, le compactage du sol et la degradation des caracteristiques de coins de glace. Nous avons examine les effets a long terme d'une periode prolongee de prospection des gisements d'hydrocarbures sur l'ile Melville dans le Haut-Arctique canadien en utilisant des donnees de teledetection disponibles en plus d'observations de terrain sur une etendue de ~370 [km.sup.2]. Des photographies aeriennes de 1959, 1972 et 1977 ainsi que des images satellites recentes (2011 et 2013) ont ete utilisees pour determiner les effets de l'activite industrielle au cours des periodes correspondant a la pre-activite, a l'activite et a la post-activite. Nous montrons que les traces de vehi