Eco-environment quality evaluation of rare earth ore mining area based on remote sensing techniques

Abstract

In this paper, we took LongNan County in JiangXi Province as a study area, and built up an eco-environment equality evaluation mode based on grids using remote sensing techniques to get the regional features of eco-environment and to assess the ecological and environmental equality of rare earth ore mining area. The result shows that 62.16% of the whole area in LongNan County is a better grade of the eco-environmental equality. However, 10.54% of the whole area maintained a bad or worse grade. There into, 0.59% of the total area is a worse grade. From the spatial distribution, the area which is a better grade of the eco-environmental equality mainly concentrated in forestland with high vegetation coverage and high biological abundance; on the contrary, the area which is a worst grade mainly located in the rare earth ore mining area. It was concluded that the status of eco-environment quality of LongNan County in 2010 was in a good grade, and rare earth ore mining activities destroyed the eco-environment status seriously. The study will provide a support and decision-making for the relevant department to set up plans for mineral resource exploitation, it has an important significance. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.