Monitoring the mining effect at drainage basin level using geoinformation technologies

Abstract

One of the priority lines of modern regional policy with regard to mining is a territory's sustainable use. One of the key issues is the development of local level monitoring systems to assess and control territories that are subject to intensive anthropogenic activity. The current work proposes a developed geodatabase model for remote sensing and ground-based monitoring of the effects of coal mining at drainage level using geoinformation technologies. Based on this model, the Kutina geographic information system for the drainage basin of the Kutina River has been constructed. The geodatabase is open and may be updated and supplemented with other types of information. This is the first monitoring of coal mining's anthropogenic impact on the land cover and the Kutina Pyramids natural landmark carried out on the territory of the Kutina River drainage basin, Bulgaria. It may assist local level managerial decision-making, among others. Generation of landslide processes and self-ignition of coal layers has been identified as well. The recorded change in the hydrographic network resulting from the performed open coal extraction affects directly the change of the erosion basis. Its increase enhances lateral erosion at the expense of vertical, which is one of the major causes for the Kutina Pyramids natural landmark's degradation.