Review of vegetation indices for studies of post-mining processes

Abstract

Each phenomenon has its cause and effect. During the research on the post-mining processes, the reasons can be found in ongoing processes taking place after the end of the mining exploitation. Therefore, a very important aspect is Geomonitoring. Currently, the post-mining processes taking place all over the world, should be considered into two groups of processes: such taking place in subsurface regions and such on the surface on the Earth. Through an integrated Geomonitoring it is possible to observe, among others, the vegetation of the mining areas. The observation of the state of vegetation is an aspect of research using remote sensing methods, e.g. indicators of vegetation. Of course, the reduction of plant vegetation may be caused by other reasons as well. Therefore, an important aspect is to distinguish changes in vegetation resulting affects coming from natural factors (climate changes, long-term droughts or sudden weather phenomena) and the resulting from post-mining processes. This article presents the indicators that have been discovered and used in the research of plant vegetation, which can be used in the post-mining.