Identification of the disturbance and trajectory types in mining areas using multitemporal remote sensing images.

Surface coal mining disturbances affect the local ecology, human populations and environmental quality. Thus, much public attention has been focused on mining issues and the need for monitoring of environmental disturbances in mining areas. An automated method for identifying mining disturbances, and for characterizing recovery of vegetative cover on disturbed areas using multitemporal Landsat imagery is described.

Spatial and temporal relationships among watershed mining, water quality, and freshwater mussel status in an eastern USA river.

The Powell River of southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee, USA, drains a watershed with extensive coal surface mining, and it hosts exceptional biological richness, including at-risk species of freshwater mussels, downstream of mining-disturbed watershed areas. We investigated spatial and temporal patterns of watershed mining disturbance; their relationship to water quality change in the section of the river that connects mining areas to mussel habitat; and relationships of mining-related water constituents to measures of recent and past mussel status. Freshwater mussels in the Powell River have experienced significant declines over the past 3.

Reconstructing disturbance history for an intensively mined region by time-series analysis of Landsat imagery.

Surface mining disturbances have attracted attention globally due to extensive influence on topography, land use, ecosystems, and human populations in mineral-rich regions. We analyzed a time series of Landsat satellite imagery to produce a 28-year disturbance history for surface coal mining in a segment of eastern USA's central Appalachian coalfield, southwestern Virginia. The method was developed and applied as a three-step sequence: vegetation index selection, persistent vegetation identification, and mined-land delineation by year of disturbance.

Evaluating terrestrial carbon sequestration options for Virginia.

Changes in forest and agricultural land management practices have the potential to increase carbon (C) storage by terrestrial systems, thus offsetting C emissions to the atmosphere from energy production. This study assesses that potential for three terrestrial management practices within the state of Virginia, USA: afforestation of marginal agricultural lands; afforestation of riparian agricultural lands; and changing tillage practices for row crops; each was evaluated on a statewide basis and for seven regions within the state. Lands eligible for each practice were identified, and the C storage potential of each practice on those lands was estimated through a modeling procedure that utilized land-resource characteristics represented in Geographic Information System databases.