F1: Oral Presentation C Thursday, 1:30 – 2:00 pm C Gooseberry Falls Room

Using Multi-Spectral Digital Imagery for Mine Reclamation, Erosion and Damage Control

Jennifer Hintz
Airborne Data Systems, Inc.
25338 290th Street
Wabasso, MN  56293
jhintz@airbornedatasystems.com  

Multispectral digital imagery can be successfully used for many commercial applications, saving time and money on processes that previously required many hours of manual labor. Such imagery can be utilized as a monitoring devise, whereby data is acquired and analyzed for vegetation changes and topography changes that reflect problem areas. 

Mining is usually followed by extensive reclamation efforts to evade erosion and restore vegetation and topography to approximate the original topological grade. Benching is a technique often employed in reclamation efforts, often accompanied by installing extensive pipelines to restrain water flow. By restraining the flow of water, erosion and acid water body formation can be controlled. However, pipelines will clog over time, and proper water restraint is difficult to monitor. False color imagery and vegetation indices on multi-spectral data may be employed for determining vegetation health, a symptom of acid water formation and build up.

Utilizing imagery to monitor erosion and reclamation stability can end up saving time and money in the long run. This type of monitoring reduces man hours in the field by detecting changes before they can be detected by the naked eye, and before large amounts of damage are done, as well as by detecting early erosion signs, which can be very costly both environmentally and economically.