The Cryosphere
The Cryosphere
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Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6355-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6355-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 19, issue 12
Research article
 | 
01 Dec 2025
Research article |  | 01 Dec 2025

Monitoring Arctic permafrost – examining the contribution of volunteered geographic information to mapping ice-wedge polygons

Pauline Walz, Oliver Fritz, Sabrina Marx, Marlin M. Mueller, Christian Thiel, Josefine Lenz, Soraya Kaiser, Roxanne Frappier, Alexander Zipf, and Moritz Langer

Data sets

Monitoring Arctic Permafrost - Crowdsourced Ice-wedge Polygon Center Points (1.0.0) P. Walz et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14756139

High-resolution UAV Orthomosaic and DSM Dataset - Blueberry Hill (Aklavik, NWT, CA) 5 cm GSD [2022] M. M. Mueller et al. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14283656

Super-high-resolution aerial imagery, digital surface models and 3D point clouds of Meade Fire Scar, Alaska T. Rettelbach et al. https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.962535

Model code and software

Code for publication: Monitoring Arctic Permafrost – Examining the Contribution of Volunteered Geographic Information to Mapping Ice-Wedge Polygons P. Walz https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17296844

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Short summary
We explored how citizen scientists can help map changes in Arctic landscapes. Using a web tool we created, more than 100 volunteers contributed the approximate center points of particular ground patterns called ice-wedge polygons in aerial images from Alaska and Canada. Our work shows that the data created by volunteers can be used to reconstruct ice-wedge polygon networks and provide valuable insights on the state of frozen ground in the Arctic.
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