Land Cover Fragmentation Using Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing on Major Mine Sites in Southern Katanga (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Abstract

The study areas are located in the Katanga province to the South Eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). It focuses on the Kolwezi and Tenke-Fungurume mining centers, located in the vicinity of the Basse-Kando reserve. The 3 study areas have faced large scale human induced the fragmentation of land cover. A combination of ancillary data and satellite imageries was interpreted to construct fragmentation dynamics over the last 30 years. This study is an initial step towards assessing the impact of fragmentation on sustainable land cover in the Katanga. The results bring out that large trends of fragmentation differently occurred over the last 30 years (1979 to 2011) in the three focused areas. The most dominant fragmentation processes were gains in barren soil and cities surface and a sharp reduction in burned areas. In Kolwezi, a close relationship is observed between growth and regression of barren soil and cities over vegetation. The Tenke-Fungurume site shows a growth during the 1980-1990 time slice and regression of vegetation during the following two decades. The Basse-Kando site analyze brings out growth of vegetation and regression of burned area due to vegetation conservation efforts. This is one of the studies in Katanga around mines activities that combine multi-source and spatio-temporal data on land cover to enable long-term quantification of land cover fragmentation.

Assessment of soil metal distribution and environmental impact of mining in Katanga (Democratic Republic of Congo)

“…(ii) The attraction of job offers induces an important demographic influx and residential proximity close to mines and smelters (Dupin et al, 2013). Banza et al (2009) have determined that such residential zones are the most important predictor of high metal concentrations in the urine.…”

“…Special Issue of "Applied Geochemistry" dedicated to "Environmental impacts of mining and smelting" 25 exploitation/processing centers) induce changes in land cover, with fragmentation of the landscape, evolution from extensive large to small scale denudation patches, regression of the vegetation cover, and deforestation (Dupin et al, 2013).…”

Element Case Studies: Cobalt

“…As a consequence, these activities have created secondary metalliferous substrates with elevated concentrations of trace elements including Co (more than 1000 times greater than the concentration in normal soil) (Faucon et al 2011(Faucon et al , 2012. Such exploitation results in huge occupation of soil (over 30 000 km 2 ) and implies soil degradation (Dupin et al 2013). In southeastern Central Africa, trace elements contamination constitutes a major environmental issue related to low pH of Ferralsol increasing trace elements mobility, intense erosion by rainfall in the rainy season, and aerial dispersal of metal particles by wind in the dry season (Pourret et al 2016).…”

Element Case Studies: Cobalt and Copper

“…As a consequence, these activities have created secondary metalliferous substrates with elevated concentrations of trace elements including Co (more than 1000 times greater than the concentration in normal soil) (Faucon et al 2011(Faucon et al , 2012. Such exploitation results in huge occupation of soil (over 30 000 km 2 ) and implies soil degradation (Dupin et al 2013). In southeastern Central Africa, trace elements contamination constitutes a major environmental issue related to low pH of Ferralsol increasing trace elements mobility, intense erosion by rainfall in the rainy season, and aerial dispersal of metal particles by wind in the dry season .…”