Coal pit lakes in abandoned mining areas in León (NW Spain): characteristics and geoecological significance

1-14 pMining activity introduces severe changes in landscapes and, subsequently, in land uses. One of the most singular changes is the existence of pit lakes, which occur in active and, more frequently, abandoned mines. Pit lakes are produced by water table interception when open-pit mines deepen. Their characteristics are highly variable, depending on the type of mine, the environment or the climate. In León province there is a long tradition of coal mining that dates back to the nineteenth century, and hundreds of open pits from the 1970s to 2018 have been opened, producing permanent landscape changes. This work analyses the main parameters, including morphological measurements, depth and pH values obtained from aerial photos and field work, of 76 coal pit lakes more than 30 m in length. The vast majority of these pit lakes were unknown until now and were not included in inventories or maps. The data obtained provide baseline knowledge that will allow, in the future, potential uses (storage of water for various uses, recreational use, wildlife habitat, and geological heritage sites) for these pit lakes and establish their importance as a new geoecological environment.S

Evaluating and Prioritizing Stream Restoration in Mined Appalachian Watersheds.

The state of West Virginia requires stream mitigation to offset anthropogenic impacts to streams; consequently there is a high concentration of mitigation projects in the mountaintop mining/valley fill region. Projects are typically outside mine boundaries and sites are selected at the discretion of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. This dissertation evaluated current in-stream, natural channel design (NCD) structures and prioritized future project locations. First, we assessed the Little Coal River, which is one of the largest physical restoration projects in the state. The Little Coal drains 994 km2 with extensive historic and contemporary coal mining. The objectives of our study were to quantify the effects of in-stream structure construction on stream channel morphology, fish habitat quality, sediment composition, bank stability, fish, and macroinvertebrate assemblages and to determine the extent to which benefits persisted over our study period (5 years). Our results indicate that the beneficial effects of structures include: improved fish habitat quality, increased bed complexity, and increased substrate diversity. Post-construction fish habitat quality and streambed complexity, although dynamic, appear to be relatively stable over time. We observed significant localized macroinvertebrate response to restoration that was mediated by shifts from sand dominated substrates to cobble and gravel. However, overall improvements to invertebrate assemblages at the river reach scale were not observed, because restoration did not affect substrate composition at the larger scale. In contrast, we did observe reach-scale effects of restoration on fish assemblages. However, the overall response was difficult to interpret as being ecologically beneficial or not. Total fish biomass, total abundance, and sucker abundance increased in response to NCD structure construction. Fish species richness and integrity measures remained unchanged, and gamefish abundance decreased on the Little Coal River. Second, we expanded our region and assessed the biological and physical responses to 14 restoration projects in an intensively mined region. Our results suggest that typical restoration practices consistently improve physical habitat quality regardless of drainage area. Restored reaches generally have higher habitat condition scores than adjacent reference reaches and tend to be higher than the average reach in the region. In contrast, macroinvertebrate assemblages demonstrated no measurable positive response to physical habitat restoration, regardless of drainage area, water quality, or the condition of neighboring streams. Fish assemblage response to restoration was strongly context dependent. Restoration projects on smaller streams (i.e. \u3c 50 km2 drainage area) with lower electrical conductivity (\u3c 1000 μs/cm) tended to result in a more positive response by fishes than projects on small, highly conductive streams. However, the most consistent response by fishes to restoration was an increased abundance and biomass of tolerant taxa

Remote Sensing of Mine Site Rehabilitation for Ecological Outcomes: A Global Systematic Review

The mining industry has been operating across the globe for millennia, but it is only in the last 50 years that remote sensing technology has enabled the visualization, mapping and assessment of mining impacts and landscape recovery. Our review of published literature (1970–2019) found that the number of ecologically focused remote sensing studies conducted on mine site rehabilitation increased gradually, with the greatest proportion of studies published in the 2010– 2019 period. Early studies were driven exclusively by Landsat sensors at the regional and landscape scales while in the last decade, multiple earth observation and drone‐based sensors across a diverse range of study locations contributed to our increased understanding of vegetation development post‐mining. The Normalized Differenced Vegetation Index (NDVI) was the most common index, and was used in 45% of papers; while research that employed image classification techniques typically used supervised (48%) and manual interpretation methods (37%). Of the 37 publications that conducted error assessments, the average overall mapping accuracy was 84%. In the last decade, new classification methods such as Geographic Object‐Based Image Analysis (GEOBIA) have emerged (10% of studies within the last ten years), along with new platforms and sensors such as drones (15% of studies within the last ten years) and high spatial and/or temporal resolution earth observation satellites. We used the monitoring standards recommended by the International Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) to determine the ecological attributes measured by each study. Most studies (63%) focused on land cover mapping (spatial mosaic); while comparatively fewer studies addressed complex topics such as ecosystem function and resilience, species composition, and absence of threats, which are commonly the focus of field‐based rehabilitation monitoring. We propose a new research agenda based on identified knowledge gaps and the ecological monitoring tool recommended by SER, to ensure that future remote sensing approaches are conducted with a greater focus on ecological perspectives, i.e., in terms of final targets and end land‐use goals. In particular, given the key rehabilitation requirement of self‐sustainability, the demonstration of ecosystem resilience to disturbance and climate change should be a key area for future research

Proceedings of 2017 Kentucky Water Resources Annual Symposium

This symposium was planned and conducted as a part of the state water resources research institute annual program that is supported by Grant/Cooperative Agreement Number G16AP00055 from the United States Geological Survey. The contents of this proceedings document and the views and conclusions presented at the symposium are solely the responsibility of the individual authors and presenters and do not necessarily represent the official views of the USGS or of the symposium organizers and sponsors. This publication is produced with the understanding that the United States Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for government purposes. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute their endorsement by the U.S. Geological Survey

Quarterly literature review of the remote sensing of natural resources

The Technology Application Center reviewed abstracted literature sources, and selected document data and data gathering techniques which were performed or obtained remotely from space, aircraft or groundbased stations. All of the documentation was related to remote sensing sensors or the remote sensing of the natural resources. Sensors were primarily those operating within the 10 to the minus 8 power to 1 meter wavelength band. Included are NASA Tech Briefs, ARAC Industrial Applications Reports, U.S. Navy Technical Reports, U.S. Patent reports, and other technical articles and reports

Using LiDAR, Aerial Photography, and Geospatial Technologies to Reveal and Understand Past Landscapes in Four West Central Missouri Counties

This dissertation focuses on Hugh Prince's principle of using the present (in this case as seen through remotely sensed imagery) to understand the past via relict features. I studied ghost towns, cemeteries, and abandoned railroads via NAIP and LiDAR imagery in four west-central Missouri Counties (Carroll, Chariton, Lafayette, and Saline). The remnants of ghost towns, cemeteries, and abandoned railroads ("relict features") often manifest themselves in surface spatial patterns and terrain deformation. Each sensor offers unique advantages and disadvantages due to the design and construction of the sensor. LiDAR can strip away vegetation to present a bare earth model (a DTM) of terrain, useful in the detection of features revealed by subtle elevation and terrain changes. Specifically, LiDAR was useful for revealing historic roads and depressions in ghost towns, exposing abandoned railroad beds under tree canopies, and for the detection of monuments and other larger features in cemeteries. In addition, LiDAR also proves useful for uncovering previously undocumented roads and offers precise locations of railroad beds that were previously uncertain. NAIP presents a researcher with a color (either natural color or near-infrared) birds-eye view of the earth, revealing spatial patterns on the surface of the earth. For ghost towns, NAIP imagery was most useful for the detection of historic roads in recently abandoned ghost towns. NAIP imagery was also useful for the detection of abandoned railroads where the bed is exposed or when there is a single tree line in the bed and for visualizing the spatial patterning of cemeteries

Using predictive models as a spatially explicit support tool for managing cultural landscapes

P. 839-848Due to the high sensitivity of mountain landscapes to environmental changes, the study of land cover dynamics has become an essential tool for guiding management policies. Since the second half of the twentieth century, the Cantabrian Mountains (NW Spain) have been substantially altered by the loss of traditional management practices and, more recently, by the new environmental schemes developed by the Regional Government. This area is a biodiversity hotspot, representing the south-western-most distribution limit for a large number of species in Europe. Therefore, small changes in landscape patterns can result in biodiversity losses. In this study, we analyzed land cover changes in the Cantabrian Mountains from 1991 to 2004 by means of remote sensing techniques, identifying the main driving forces and classifying the territory according to its risk of land cover change. Forest expansion and loss of shrublands were the two major trajectories of change apparent during this period. When modeling the occurrence of these land cover changes, we found that performance of models was related to the nature of the change. The most accurate models were associated with processes of secondary succession, i.e. forest expansion (78.6%), while the least accurate models related to changes linked with management decisions, i.e. loss of shrubs (61.8%). The main drivers of change were variations in the number of goats (for the forest expansion model) and changes in the number of head of sheep and cattle (for the loss of shrubs model). Topographic conditions (altitude and slope) were relevant in both models. Our approach proposes an explicit decision support tool for landscape managers, allowing better identification of the areas where they should focus their attention

An investigation of mining impacts on bats in South-West England

The extraction of minerals through open-pit mining can result in sudden and extensive land use change, often posing threats to local biodiversity. Bats are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of mining, but their metapopulation structure and wide-ranging roosting habits can make it challenging to monitor local populations. Here, we investigated the impacts of habitat loss and disturbance at Drakelands open-pit mine, the first new metal mine to be established within Britain in the past 45 years. This was addressed in two parts, firstly by analysing data collected by contracted ecologists at the site, in order to identify potential short-term shifts in bat activity and to evaluate the efficacy of mitigation measures. Secondly, by monitoring bat activity in the wider landscape to identify potential further-ranging impacts of the mine on local bat populations. In conjunction with this work we incorporated a field trial of a novel bat detector designed for long-term monitoring of bat activity. The results highlighted the multitude of factors which influence bat activity at a local level, and may provide a platform for continued research into the impacts of habitat fragmentation and anthropogenic noise at a species/ genus level. The information presented here will help to inform management decision making in regards to bat conservation, both at the Drakelands site and potentially at mining operations elsewhere.Wolf Mineral

Michigan Geology: A Bibliography, March 2016

The Michigan Geological Survey produced a historic Index of Michigan Geology with an extensive bibliography in 1956. This current bibliography is an update of the bibliography in the Martin and Straight compilation. It is not comprehensive, but provides a starting place for anyone interested in Michigan Geology. The Michigan Geological Survey plans to update this bibliography periodically with newly published citations as well as other older citations we find