While there are abundant erosional features throughout the Arctic – ranging from landslides, thaw slumps or river bank to gully erosion – one of the most dynamic periglacial elements are thermokarst lakes. Due to their lateral thermal and mechanical erosion they shape their surrounding topography and hydrological network, leading to a further destabilization of permafrost soils. This study aims at the remote sensing based identification and quantification of these lateral erosion processes and their incorporation into the land surface model CryoGrid3 to estimate their effect on Arctic ecosystems and infrastructure.