Demonstration of Rehabilitation/Revegetation

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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Category

• Topographic information
• Impact assessment
• Change detection / continuous monitoring
• Land cover / use
• Near surface geology

• Surface deformation
• Precision ortho-images
• Terrain information
• Water quantity & quality

Uses

Design, Construction & Operations / Mine Closure & Aftercare

• Continuous monitoring of rehabilitation steps and their resulting effects on the environment.
• Continuous comparison of baseline, current and agreed endpoint conditions.
• Crop health monitoring

Challenges addressed

• Closure and Aftercare – Environmental Mapping
• Closure and Aftercare – Geochemical Mapping
• Closure and Aftercare – Mapping of Infrastructure
• Closure and Aftercare – Affected Stakeholders

Geo-information needs

• CA-2: Characterisation of flora and fauna;
• CA-3: Soil structure and chemistry;
• CA-4: Demonstration of infrastructure removal;
• CA-6: Demonstrate no impact on special area of conservation;
• CA-8: Farming activities - confirm a return to baseline conditions for crops/animals

Description

During mine closure and aftercare, actors in the mining industry must demonstrate that the area of the mining site has been rehabilitated and returned to an agreed endpoint. The endpoint is based on the baseline data gathered during the permitting period and vegetation and variety of vegetation covers are key metrics. In order to conduct such analysis, several earth observation (EO) products can be made use of:

1. i) Optical imagery allows for a continuous monitoring of the rehabilitation steps and the consequent evolution of the revegetation around and on the mining site. Those changes in land usage can be manually digitalized with the help of Geographical Information System (GIS) software and shapefiles (vector objects). Such observations give the opportunity to both mining and mapping authorities to investigate the status of mine closure and aftercare steps, and to verify if those steps are conducted according to the agreed plan.
2. ii) Coupling of infrared and visible imagery products can be used to generate vegetation index map products, which allows for the identification of vegetated areas and their conditions.

Known restrictions / limitations

The rate of growth for vegetation cover will vary depending on geography and climate. Where the rate of growth is relatively slow, an extended period of monitoring (years to decades) might be required to demonstrate a fully recovered habitat in the mining area.

The recovery growth rate of the vegetation might be dependent on the evolution in time of a large number of factors such as infrastructure removal, air and water quality, water management and location of stockpiles. A continuous monitoring of each of those parameters over a long time period and the response of vegetation to their changes is therefore vital.

Lifecycle stage and demand

Exploration

Environmental Assessment and Permitting

Design, Construction and Operations

Mine Closure and Aftercare

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Environmental Assessment & Permitting:

• Detailed input baseline information about the flora and fauna is required to conduct a thorough analysis of how the rehabilitation/revegetation steps are planned to be managed during mine operations and after mine closure

Design, Construction & Operations / Mine Closure & Aftercare:

• Continuous monitoring of rehabilitation steps and their resulting effects on the environment
• Continuous comparison of baseline, current and agreed endpoint conditions

Geographic coverage

EARSC Thematic Domain

Domain

Land use

PRODUCT SPECIFICATIONS

Input data sources

Website

Minimum Mapping Unit (MMU)

Minimum detectable feature size (dependent on the input pixel resolution, ~1 - 3 px)

Accuracy / constraints

Thematic accuracy:

>85% threshold for overall accuracy / class accuracy.

Spatial accuracy:

Dependent on the input pixel resolution; typically, 0.5 - 1 pixel.

Accuracy assessment approach & quality control measures

Dependent on the input pixel resolution; typically, ~0.5 - 1 pixel.

Timeliness

Digitization of ongoing rehabilitation steps and revegetation from imagery products can be completed within a few days of work, dependent on how large the rehabilitated area is and the number of activities.

Rehabilitation/revegetation changes likely to be reported on a weekly to yearly basis.

Availability

Data from Sentinel satellites are freely available through the open data policy of the European Space Agency. Data is made available typically within 6-12 hours of satellite fly-over (similar for Landsat through NASA open data policy).

GeoEye-1, Worldview, SPOT and Pleiades data are commercially licensed and must be purchased through operator/vendor. Usually available within hour(s) of satellite fly-over.

Delivery / output format

Rehabilitation steps

Map showing conducted and planned rehabilitation steps

Output: vector formats - shapefile, reports of specified and/or requested key indicators, client-specified spatial formats

Land cover

Map showing the land cover in the region of interest (evolution in time)

Output: - raster formats - GeoTiff, reports of specified and/or requested key indicators, client-specified spatial formats

Vegetation index

Map showing the vegetated areas and their conditions (evolution in time)

Output: - raster formats - GeoTiff, reports of specified and/or requested key indicators, client-specified spatial formats

USE CASE