Evaluating the Feasibility of Illegal Open-Pit Mining Identification Using Insar Coherence

Wang, Shunyao; Lu, Xiaoping; Chen, Zhenwei; Zhang, Guo; Ma, Taofeng; Jia, Peng; Li, Beibei

doi:10.3390/rs12030367

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(49 reference statements)

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“…[16,40]), changes to water bodies generated by mining [41,42], and interferometric synthetic aperture radar temporal decorrelation on unvegetated surfaces, particularly in dryland and desert areas where water is less used in ASGM (e.g. [43,44]) would complement the current method and offer paths forward for detection of dark mining activity. Identifying and quantifying these repeat mining events will help to make our understanding of these dynamics more accurate.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeated mining accounts for the majority of artisanal and small-scale gold mining activity in Southeastern Peru

Engstrand,

Espejo,

Silman

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) is considered a leading cause of environmental degradation in the Amazon. Previous studies have only used deforestation to quantify total ASGM activity and have not considered that mining may occur multiple times in the same area. However, miners often revisit previously mined sites to extract additional gold, though the frequency and extent of this occurrence remains unquantified. This study is the first to quantify repeat ASGM in Madre de Dios, Peru, and to identify which factors best predict revisitation. We found that nearly two-thirds of total ASGM activity in this region is repeat mining. When repeat mining activity is accounted for, we found that 249,488 ha were mined from 1984-2021, which is 265% more than activity estimates based on deforestation due to initial ASGM alone. Random Forest modeling showed that the designation, region, size, and type of a mine were the most important predictors of repeat mining. We suggest that repeat mining must be considered for a more comprehensive view of ASGM activity and its environmental impacts.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Repeated mining accounts for the majority of artisanal and small-scale gold mining activity in Southeastern Peru

Engstrand,

Espejo,

Silman

et al. 2024

Environ. Res. Lett.

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“…In this way, the effects of mining activities on the ecological environment inside and outside mining areas can be distinguished. In addition, the accurate identification of mine boundaries could also facilitate the dynamic monitoring of illegal mining activities [21].…”

Section: Identification Of Mining Boundariesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress in the Remote Sensing Monitoring of the Ecological Environment in Mining Areas

Song

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Based on the results of an extensive literature research, we summarize the research progress of remote sensing monitoring in terms of identifying mining area boundaries and monitoring land use or land cover changes of mining areas. We also analyze the application of remote sensing in monitoring the biodiversity, landscape structure, vegetation change, soil environment, surface runoff conditions, and the atmospheric environment in mining areas and predict the prospects of remote sensing in monitoring the ecological environment in mining areas. Based on the results, the accurate classification of land use or land cover and the accurate extraction of environmental factors are the basis for remote sensing monitoring of the ecological environment in mining areas. In terms of the extraction of ecological factors, vegetation extraction is relatively advanced in contrast to the extraction of animal and microbial data. For the monitoring of environmental conditions of mining areas, sophisticated methods are available to identify pollution levels of vegetation and to accurately monitor soil quality. However, the methods for water and air pollution monitoring in mining areas still need to be improved. These limitations considerably impede the application of remote sensing monitoring in mining areas. The solving of these problems depends on the progress of multi-source remote sensing data and stereoscopic monitoring techniques.

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“…Hartwig et al [20] also used the persistent scatterer interferometry (PSI) technique to monitor the deformation of mine slope to determine its risk. Wang et al [21] also successfully determined the legal and illegal mining sites by using the decorrelation phenomenon of coherence images which provides a new monitoring method for illegal mining. Chaussard et al [22] used InSAR techniques to determine that land subsidence around twenty black sand mining sites on Luzon Island had seriously threatened coastal towns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring Mining Activities Using Sentinel-1A InSAR Coherence in Open-Pit Coal Mines

et al. 2021

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Long-term continuous monitoring of the mining activities in open-pit coal mines is conducive to planning and management of the mining operations. Additionally, this faciliatates assessment on their environmental impact and supervises illegal mining behaviors. Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technology can be effectively applied in the monitoring of open-pit mines where vegetation is sparse and land cover is dominated by bare rock. The main objective of this study is to monitor the mining activities of four open-pit coal mines in the Wucaiwan mining area in China from 2018 to 2020, namely No. 1, No. 2 (containing two mining areas), and No. 3. We use the normalized differential activity index (NDAI) based on the coherence coefficient as an indicator of the mine activity due to its robustness to temporal and spatial decorrelation. After analyzing and removing the decorrelation caused by rain and snow weather, 70 NDAI images in 12-day intervals are obtained from Sentinel-1A InSAR coherence images. Then, the annually-averaged NDAI images are applied to an RGB composite technique (red for 2018, green for 2019, blue for 2020) to express the interannual variation of the mining activities. Points of interest are then selected for NDAI time series analysis. The RGB composite results indicated that No. 1 and 3 open-pit coal mines were continuously mined during the three years; whereas, the two mining areas of No. 2 were mainly active in 2018. The 12-day NDAI time-series graphs of No. 2 open-pit coal mine also indicate that the coal piles located in the coal transferring area of the first mining area were not completely removed until April 2019. It is also seen that the second mining area was decommissioned in November 2018 and became rehabilitated in July 2019. Results were validated using the Sentinel-2A images and related background information confirming the efficiency of the proposed approach for monitoring the mining activity in open-pit mines.

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Evaluating the Feasibility of Illegal Open-Pit Mining Identification Using Insar Coherence

Cited by 15 publications

References 49 publications

Repeated mining accounts for the majority of artisanal and small-scale gold mining activity in Southeastern Peru

Repeated mining accounts for the majority of artisanal and small-scale gold mining activity in Southeastern Peru

Progress in the Remote Sensing Monitoring of the Ecological Environment in Mining Areas

Monitoring Mining Activities Using Sentinel-1A InSAR Coherence in Open-Pit Coal Mines

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