Gordon, S.; Xu, X.; Wang, Y. Remote Sensing-Based Revegetation Assessment at Post-Closure Mine Sites in Canada. Preprints2023, 2023061161. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.1161.v1
APA Style
Gordon, S., Xu, X., & Wang, Y. (2023). Remote Sensing-Based Revegetation Assessment at Post-Closure Mine Sites in Canada. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.1161.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Gordon, S., Xiaoyong Xu and Yanyu Wang. 2023 "Remote Sensing-Based Revegetation Assessment at Post-Closure Mine Sites in Canada" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202306.1161.v1
Abstract
The environmental legacy of post-closure mine sites poses a significant risk to the sustainability of mining operations and natural resource development. This study aims to advance the understanding of sustainable mine site reclamation behavior in Canada by using multi-temporal Landsat satellite images to examine the long-term land cover changes at post-closure mine sites. Six representative post-closure mine sites were selected for the evaluation and comparison. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) analysis, Landsat image classification, post-classification change detection, and Regrowth Index (RI) analysis were conducted to assess the speed and extent of landscape and vegetation recovery at the target mine sites. A significant vegetation recovery was quantified for the mine sites that have experienced active reclamation activities. In contrast, the post-closure mine area undergoing only the passive revegetation typically demonstrated a slow and minor increase in vegetation over time. The actively revegetated mine sites can typically be restored to a level that equals or better than the pre-mining situation. This work confirms that active reclamation and revegetation at post-closure mine sites is critically important in sustainable mining. The quantified mine site reclamation behavior and the relevant sustainable practices would be useful for evidence-based sustainable resource management in Canada.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
