Use of Remote Sensing to Assess the Environmental Setting of the Territories-Zones of Mining Complex

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Journal of Mining World Express (MWE)

Use of Remote Sensing to Assess the Environmental Setting of the Territories-Zones of Mining Complex Enterprises G.V. Kalabin Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Comprehensive Exploitation of Mineral Resources (RAS), Kryukovsky tupik, 4, 111020, Moscow, Russia kalabin.g@gmail.com Abstract- The paper supports applicability of satellite imagery at regional and local level for rapid quantitative assessment of natural environment in zones of activity of mining complex enterprises. Exacerbation of environmental problems during mineral mining and processing associated with their scale and geography of field distribution through the vast territory of our country requires constant monitoring of natural environment status, which necessitates engagement of space surveillance nowadays. Remote sensing methods offer the most affordable and prompt approach for acquisition of information on land degradation. We quote and analyze the results of studies of the natural environment status by the example of three mining complex enterprises with different industrial infrastructure located in different climatic conditions. Keywords- Remote Sensing; Mining Complex; Technogenic Load; Environmental Assessment; Vegetation Index; Soil Phytotoxicity

I. INTRODUCTION It is known that Russia has become a major resource and raw power in the world from the middle of the past century and it has enormous stocks of natural resources for industrial use, including mineral ones. However, implemented technologies of mineral mining and processing allow using only pittance of valuable mineral mass extracted from the bowels of the earth (generally about 5-8%). The rest is waste, which becomes one of the most powerful forces of mantriggered environmental changes with accumulation and storage. As a result, quality of natural environment has considerably deteriorated in 50 mining regions of the country in recent years. However, environmental issues are still considered as external factors in relation to social and economic sphere. Therefore, the country loses control over its environmental future. The problem is also compounded by the fact that there is no effective system of environmental monitoring in the country. The system has not been modernized since the 80-ies and it does not allow an objective assessment of the environment status at the regional and local level. This requires extensive resources, and most importantly, long period of observation. Methods of Remote Sensing (RS) of the Earth, which are characterized by high rates of development and rapid obtainment of practically meaningful results, may become an alternative solution of the issue. The biggest advantage of remote sensing is that it can detect spatial patterns of landscape features, obtain information with different temporal resolution and in any scale, perform multiple analyses of explored territories and compare current events with the past ones. In addition, and perhaps most

importantly, RS allows obtaining independent operational real-time information. The simplest spectral methods are methods for determination of vegetation indices. Normalized Differential Vegetation Index (NDVI) [1] from a large group of vegetation indices is used most widely and it is calculated by the formula: NDVI=(KSB4 - KSB3)/( KSB4+KSB3) where KSB is coefficient of spectral brightness in the nearinfrared (IR) and red spectral channels. Spectral properties of plants depend on properties of leaves, their density and space orientation. Vegetation actively absorbs light in the blue and red regions of the spectrum having local maximum near 0.55 µm, which defines green color of plants. Fast increase of KSB of vegetation is observed in the near-IR range. This is explained by the peculiarities of the spectral properties of chlorophyll. The subsequent run of a spectral curve in the infrared region is defined by the presence of free water in plants. Modern means of RS make it possible to identify different types of vegetation, such as coniferous and deciduous trees, ground cover, etc. using spectral characteristics. If a plant is under stress, its spectral properties change. KSB growth is observed in the visible and near-IR ranges [2], if vegetation is under stress (chemical or water). This method has become most common in the sphere of environmental management for global assessments of land cover of the Earth, as well as for solution of some practical problems in agriculture (e.g., assessment of yield of various crops, land desertification, soil erosion), forest science (taxonomic measurements of forest quality, damage assessment due to fires, etc.) [3]. Modern aerospace techniques and technologies for monitoring of different objects of oil and gas complex on land and water areas have received considerable development in the works of State Enterprise “Scientific Center of Aerospace Monitoring “Aerospace” [4-6]. However, it is used for the first time as applied to the tasks of quantitative assessment of the environment status under the influence of technogenic loads in the area of activity of mining complex enterprises. It is proposed to implement monitoring of land cover and land use at regional and local level for the environmental assessment of a particular production or a production complex. To accomplish this, one shall determine dependence of NDVI change trends with the magnitude of technogenic load on source or multiple sources of environmental pollution in a particular territory. Thus, it is possible to provide real-time

MWE Volume 1, Issue 1 July 2012 PP. 1-7 http://www.vkingpub.com/mwe/ © American V-King Scientific Publishing -1-


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