Against the background of global warming, permafrost areas are facing increasing thawing, and the threat to the surface of the Qinghai–Tibet Engineering Corridor (QTEC) is serious. It is imperative to understand the current surface deformation and analyze the changes spatiotemporal characteristics for future warnings. At present, observation of a long time series and overall coverage of vertical ground deformation in QTEC are lacking. This paper takes the permafrost deformation of the QTEC as its research object. It uses the pretreated LiCSAR product and combines it with the LiCSBAS package to obtain monitoring results of the long time series deformation of the engineering corridor’s surface. The SAR image acquisition date is taken as the constraint, the results covering the whole processing area are selected, and then the vertical deformation information covering the entire engineering corridor area by ignoring the north–south displacement is calculated. The results show that the surface of the study area, as a whole, slightly subsided between May 2017 and March 2022, and the vertical deformation rate was mostly distributed at −27.068 mm/yr − 18.586 mm/yr, with an average of −1.06 mm/yr. Vertical deformation dominated at 52.84 percent of the study area, of which settlement accounted for 27.57 percent and uplift accounted for 25.27 percent. According to the statistics of the normal distribution of deformation velocity per pixel, a total of 77% of the engineering corridor was stable, with a vertical deformation rate between −6.964 mm/yr and −4.844 mm/yr, and 17.7% of the region was sub-stable, with a settling rate of −12.868 mm/yr − –6.964 mm/yr. The unstable regions included areas with settlement rates greater than 12.868 mm/yr and uplift rates greater than 10.748 mm/yr, representing 4.4 percent and 0.9 percent of the total area, respectively, for a total of 5.3 percent. The results of this paper can be used as the theoretical basis and as basic data for decision making and scientific research in various departments, and they are of great significance for surface stability assessment and early warnings along engineering corridors and traffic projects.

The thermal state of permafrost in the present and future is fundamental to ecosystem evolution, hydrological processes, carbon release and infrastructure integrity in cold regions. In 2011, we initiated a permafrost monitoring network along the China–Russia crude oil pipeline (CRCOP) route at the eastern flank of the northern Da Xing'anling Mountains in Northeast China. We compiled an integrated dataset of the ground thermal state along the CRCOP route consisting of meteorological data near the southern limit of latitudinal permafrost, ground temperature (GT) data in 20 boreholes with depths of 10.0–60.6 m, soil volumetric liquid water contents (VWCs) and 2D electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) data at different sites. Results demonstrate a permafrost warming during 2011–2020 in the vicinity of the southern limit of latitudinal permafrost, as manifested by rising GTs at almost all depths in response to climate warming. Local thermal disturbances triggered by the construction and operation of CRCOPs have resulted in significant permafrost warming and subsequent thawing on the right-of-way (ROW) of the pipelines. This permafrost thaw will persist, but it can be alleviated by adopting mitigative measures, such as an insulation layer and thermosyphons. The in situ observational dataset is of great value for assessing the variability of permafrost under the linear disturbances of the CRCOPs and related environmental effects, for understanding hydro–thermal–mechanical interactions between the buried pipelines and permafrost foundation soils, and for evaluating the operational and structural integrity of the pipeline systems in the future. The dataset is available at the National Tibetan Plateau/Third Pole Environment Data Center (https://doi.org/10.11888/Cryos.tpdc.272357; Li, 2022).