Detection of illicit sand mining and the associated environmental effects in China's fourth largest freshwater lake using daytime and nighttime satellite images

Duan, Hongtao; Cao, Zhigang; Shen, Ming; Liu, Dong; Xiao, Qitao

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.07.359

Cited by 72 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…However, with the discovery of sand sources in other lake segments, the sand mining area spread rapidly to the entire lake, and by 2016 more than 600 sand mining vessels were observed on Landsat images [30]. Previous studies have found that sand mining activities rapidly increased TSM [30,33,37]. Then, 1785 high-quality images were applied to the model (Equation (1)) to obtain a TSM concentration dataset in Lake Hongze from 2003 to 2017.…”

Section: Human-induced Driving Mechanism Of Sdd Variationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Long-term observations of the wind speed in Lake Hongze show that a trend of decreasing wind speed will contribute to SDD increases and improve the underwater light environment. Since the strict sand mining policy was formulated in 2017, sand mining activities have been well controlled and water transparency has significantly increased [33]. Therefore, an increasing trend of SDD is predicted under the strict sand mining policy and reduced wind speeds.…”

Section: Potential Significance Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, according to the previous policy management experience of Lake Hongze, once the policy is relaxed or the law enforcement is not strict, the sand mining activities will return and transparency may continue to decrease. The structure of the lake bottom will be further damaged, which will cause great obstacles to the restoration of aquatic vegetation and benthic organisms in the future [33]. The reduction of transparency further limits the growth and distribution of aquatic vegetation [8], which may results in desertification at the bottom of the lake.…”

Section: Potential Significance Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The water quality of Lake Hongze has attracted more attention due to strong human activities such as the South-to-North Water Transfer Project and dredging activities [30][31][32]. However, studies have shown a clear increase in suspended particulate concentrations in 2012 and first observed sand mining vessels using LANDSAT data and VIIRS data in Lake Hongze [30,33]. In fact, the first sand mining was discovered in Lake Hongze near the entrance of Huai River in 2007, not 2012 [34].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In fact, the first sand mining was discovered in Lake Hongze near the entrance of Huai River in 2007, not 2012 [34]. Just as was found by research in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, intensive sand mining in lakes not only changes the topography of the bottoms of the lakes [35], which leads to rapidly increasing suspended particulate matters and accelerates the attenuation of light in water columns but also reduces water transparency and affects lake ecosystems [3,33,36,37]. However, the long-term changes of water transparency in Lake Hongze, the possible driving factors and the potential significant effects on the ecological environment have received little attention.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Decline in Transparency of Lake Hongze from Long-Term MODIS Observations: Possible Causes and Potential Significance

Shi

Zhang

et al. 2019

Remote Sensing

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Transparency is an important indicator of water quality and the underwater light environment and is widely measured in water quality monitoring. Decreasing transparency occurs throughout the world and has become the primary water quality issue for many freshwater and coastal marine ecosystems due to eutrophication and other human activities. Lake Hongze is the fourth largest freshwater lake in China, providing water for surrounding cities and farms but experiencing significant water quality changes. However, there are very few studies about Lake Hongze's transparency due to the lack of long-term monitoring data for the lake. To understand long-term trends, possible causes and potential significance of the transparency in Lake Hongze, an empirical model for estimating transparency (using Secchi disk depth: SDD) based on the moderate resolution image spectroradiometer (MODIS) 645-nm data was validated using an in situ dataset. Model mean absolute percentage and root mean square errors for the validation dataset were 27.7% and RMSE = 0.082 m, respectively, which indicates that the model performs well for SDD estimation in Lake Hongze without any adjustment of model parameters. Subsequently, 1785 cloud-free images were selected for use by the validated model to estimate SDDs of Lake Hongze in 2003-2017. The long-term change of SDD of Lake Hongze showed a decreasing trend from 2007 to 2017, with an average of 0.49 m, ranging from 0.57 m in 2007 to 0.42 m in 2016 (a decrease of 26.3%), which indicates that Lake Hongze experienced increased turbidity in the past 11 years. The loss of aquatic vegetation in the northern bays may be mainly affected by decreases of SDD. Increasing total suspended matter (TSM) concentration resulting from sand mining activities may be responsible for the decreasing trend of SDD.

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Section: Human-induced Driving Mechanism Of Sdd Variationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Significance Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Potential Significance Of This Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Decline in Transparency of Lake Hongze from Long-Term MODIS Observations: Possible Causes and Potential Significance

Shi

Zhang

et al. 2019

Remote Sensing

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Assessment of Causes and Impacts of Sand Mining on River Ecosystem

Pandey

Kumar

Kumari

et al. 2022

Hydrogeochemistry of Aquatic Ecosystems

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The riverbank vegetation for mitigating the adverse effects of sediment dredging

Arora,

Kumar

2024

Ecohydrology

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Sediment dredging has been an ever‐growing issue, especially in developing nations with high demand for concrete filler material. River systems are adversely affected by sediment mining, resulting in decreased stability of the riverbed and riverbanks. Nature‐based solutions for riverbank erosion have been a research topic that has led to the proposal of vegetation on the riverbanks. However, little is known about the extent of riverbank vegetation required to negate the devastating effects of sediment mining because dense vegetation severely affects the flow structure and becomes a waste trap. This experimental study uses sparsely dense, flexible, and bladed vegetation to study the annulment effects of vegetation against the existing mining pit. Near‐bed turbulence and sediment transport have increased in the test section in the presence of a mining pit. The increase in near‐bed streamwise and transverse Reynolds shear stresses helped us understand the increased sediment movement in streamwise and lateral directions. The morphology of the test section showed increased riverbed erosion at the beginning of the test segment. The entire cross‐section was levelled at the end of the test section, and aggradation was downstream of the test segment. In contrast, in the vegetated riverbank case, the initial profile of the bank was almost unchanged for the same discharge of flow and upstream sand pit. The sparse vegetation overperformed the intended negation effects. This study establishes that sparse vegetation would perform better in maintaining the channel morphology, which otherwise in dense vegetation would have faced a high erosion rate in the main channel while giving the same protection to the riverbanks.

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Detection of illicit sand mining and the associated environmental effects in China's fourth largest freshwater lake using daytime and nighttime satellite images

Cited by 72 publications

References 22 publications

Decline in Transparency of Lake Hongze from Long-Term MODIS Observations: Possible Causes and Potential Significance

Decline in Transparency of Lake Hongze from Long-Term MODIS Observations: Possible Causes and Potential Significance

Assessment of Causes and Impacts of Sand Mining on River Ecosystem

The riverbank vegetation for mitigating the adverse effects of sediment dredging

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