Home – Home – Jornals – Earth’s Cryosphere 2026 number 1

An increase in air temperature entails an increase in soil temperature, which is dangerous for buildings and structures constructed with the foundation soils preserved in a frozen state. One of the most common methods of maintaining the frozen state of foundation soils is the construction of a ventilated basement. This system cools the soil by circulating cold atmospheric air. However, with the rise in the mean monthly temperature, the efficiency of the ventilated basement decreases. In a number of regions, the construction of buildings with a ventilated basement without additional measures to cool the foundation soils is already insufficient and may lead to the instability of buildings during their operation. In this paper, analytical calculations are carried out to determine the critical year for the loss of efficiency of ventilated basements according to data from weather stations in the north of European Russia and Western Siberia, as well as in the Central and Eastern Siberia. These calculations are based on representative values of the maximum soil temperature at the base of the pier foundation at the edge of the building with ventilated basement for the beginning of operation in 2025, 2075, and 2125.