Assessment of the capability of remote sensing and GIS techniques for monitoring reclamation success in coal mine degraded lands

• Published in: Journal of environmental management Vol. 182; pp. 272 - 283
• Main Authors: Karan, Shivesh Kishore, Samadder, Sukha Ranjan, Maiti, Subodh Kumar
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01.11.2016; Academic Press Ltd
• Subjects: Coal - analysis; Coal Mining; Environment; Environmental Monitoring; Geographic Information Systems; Geographical information systems; GIS; India; Land reclamation; Linear Models; NDMI; NDVI; Reclamation; Regression analysis; Remote sensing; Remote Sensing Technology; Satellite Imagery; Support Vector Machine; India; India, Bihar, Dhanbad, Dist., Jharia Coal Field; GIS; Coal mining; NDVI; NDMI; Remote sensing; Reclamation
• ISSN: 0301-4797; 1095-8630
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.07.070

The objective of the present study is to monitor reclamation activity in mining areas. Monitoring of these reclaimed sites in the vicinity of mining areas and on closed Over Burden (OB) dumps is critical for improving the overall environmental condition, especially in developing countries where area around the mines are densely populated. The present study evaluated the reclamation success in the Block II area of Jharia coal field, India, using Landsat satellite images for the years 2000 and 2015. Four image processing methods (support vector machine, ratio vegetation index, enhanced vegetation index, and normalized difference vegetation index) were used to quantify the change in vegetation cover between the years 2000 and 2015. The study also evaluated the relationship between vegetation health and moisture content of the study area using remote sensing techniques. Statistical linear regression analysis revealed that Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) coupled with Normalized Difference Moisture Index (NDMI) is the best method for vegetation monitoring in the study area when compared to other indices. A strong linear relationship (r2 > 0.86) was found between NDVI and NDMI. An increase of 21% from 213.88 ha in 2000 to 258.9 ha in 2015 was observed in the vegetation cover of the reclaimed sites for an open cast mine, indicating satisfactory reclamation activity. NDVI results indicated that vegetation health also improved over the years. •RS and GIS were used to monitor reclamation success of coal mine degraded lands.•NDVI, EVI, RVI, and SVM techniques were used to detect the vegetation changes.•Regression analysis was used to compare the accuracy of the vegetation indices.