1. Monitoring Mining Activity and Vegetation Recovery in Rare Earth Element Mining Areas.
- Author
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Liu, Yan and Zuo, Renguang
- Subjects
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RARE earth metals , *ECOLOGICAL assessment , *RESTORATION ecology , *RANDOM forest algorithms - Abstract
Ecological restoration of rare earth element (REE) mining areas has become a key component in the sustainable development of the ion-adsorption-type REE industry. Current studies on ecological restoration assessments are mainly based on a comparison of REE mining ranges conducted over two or more periods, therefore, the dynamic evolution of spatial patterns for REE mining and vegetation recovery remains to be elucidated. Rapid advances in remote sensing techniques, along with the cloud-based Google Earth Engine (GEE), can provide an effective and convenient observation strategy for monitoring the environment in mining areas. In this study, we propose a hybrid method consisting of a random forest (RF) classifier and Landsat-based detection of trends in disturbance and recovery (LandTrendr) to identify and monitor the disturbance of REE mining and vegetation recovery in REE mining areas in the southern Jiangxi Province of China from 1988 to 2021 based on the GEE platform. The results reveal that REE mining activities were widespread in the study area, and the spatial distribution of REE mining areas was highly dispersed. The total area of REE mining in the study region was 93.14 km2, and the greatest REE mining activity was observed in the year 2006. As of 2021, the vegetation coverage area in the REE mining zone reached 47.44 km2, with a recovery rate of 50.93%. Among the seven counties in the study area, Longnan county had the lowest level of vegetation recovery in REE mining areas. A total of 95% of the vegetation recovery events in REE mining areas lasted between 1 and 18 years. These observations suggest that LandTrendr efficiently captured REE mining-induced disturbances and vegetation recovery and offers important reference data for the formulation of mining area restoration strategies. The results can provide a referable basis for the ecological restoration of southern Jiangxi Province, China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2024
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