A novel index combining temperature and vegetation conditions for monitoring surface mining disturbance using Landsat time series

The exploitation and utilization of mineral resources have significantly contributed to economic and social development; however, the procession has also negatively impacted the ecological environment. Thus, it is necessary to effectively monitor coalfields, an important basis for reasonable development and utilization of coalfields and following ecological reclamation. Based on MODIS Global Damage Index, We couple the Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), and proposal the Mine Landscape Damage Index (MLDI) and Mine Landscape Reclamation Index (MLRI) to supervise the disturbed vegetation of mines. Huolinhe coalfield, one of the largest mines in China, is monitored in this research. 3675 Landsat imageries from 1990 to 2020 are analyzed using the LandTrendr algorithm with MLDI and MLRI time series data on Google Earth Engine. The results demonstrate that this method could distinguish the region and disturbing process of damage and reclamation due to its effectiveness proved by visual interpretation of high-resolution imageries and verification of field investigation. The total detected area of vegetation damage was 16505.10 ha, and the vegetation damage in the mining was active from 2006 to 2011, with average annual damage of more than 1000 ha. The total area of vegetation restoration in the mine is 8640.81 ha, accounting for 52.35% of the vegetation damage. Vegetation restoration has increased gradually since 2010. In the past three years, vegetation restoration accounted for 47.61% of the total reclamation area. A novel index for monitoring the effects of surface damage in multi-open-pit mining areas is provided to us, and the detection is reliable. It can give the government an effective practical data reference in the sustainable development of utilization management and ecological reclamation in coalfield.