Remote sensing in management of mining land and proximate habitat

The societal and environmental impacts of mining activity are the focus of greater interest today than ever before. Many emerging economies are in the process of developing environmental policies for the first time. These new policies will surely affect how mining operations are expected to perform: producing the raw material needed to drive the economy at the lowest possible cost becomes as important as implementing a responsible, efficient management plan to help develop neighboring communities and sustainable land use. To achieve this objective, the management plan must incorporate ways to mitigate environmental issues, including land cover change, waste rock and tailing disposal, dust and noise, water use and re-use, and pollution, that may affect communities and the natural habitat near mining operations. Remote sensing including aerial photography, photogrammetry, and satellite imagery can play an important role in environmental monitoring and reclamation of mining areas. The main advantages of remote sensing are its ability to cover large areas, high temporal frequency, and lower cost compared to groundbased investigation and monitoring. A number of recently published papers1–11 have demonstrated the usefulness of monitoring the environmental impact of mining using various remote sensing methods. Felinks et al.12 ascertained the exact location of each site in the study area by satellite imagery (Landsat TM), airborne imagery (CASI), and ground-based methods, notably habitat mapping and vegetation sampling. Environmental impacts and the decrease of natural vegetation caused by the open pit mining activities were identified from NOAA–AVHRR and Landsat satellite images. Latifovic et al.7 employed the normalized difference vegetation index to determine the decrease in natural vegetation. Research by Antwi et al.10 focused on detecting the effect of disturbance on habitat diversity and land cover change using GIS and remote sensing in post-mining areas. Mouflis et al.9 assessed the environmental impact of marble quarries on the landscape of the Greek island of Thasos by employing remote sensing, landscape metrics, and viewshed analysis. This paper presents the results of a study that examined the areal expansion of both abandoned and in-service marble quarries, and the subsequent changes in vegetation in the Mugla region from 2001 to 2009. Mugla province in western Turkey has been an important marble production centre since ancient times. The area holds a large number of operations producing block marble, abandoned quarries, and active marble processing plants. The region is densely covered in vegetation, in particular pine trees. Remote sensing in management of mining land and proximate habitat