Institute of Integrated Mineral Development – IPKON, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia:

G. V. Kalabin, Chief Researcher, Professor, Doctor of Engineering Sciences, kalabin.g@gmail.com
Yu. P. Galchenko, Leading Researcher, Professor, Doctor of Engineering Sciences

Remote-sensing techniques are the most inexpensive and rapid approach to aggregation of information on land degradation. In combination with the surface geobotanic monitoring systems in countries possessing vast sparsely populated territories, these techniques open up cardinally new vistas for the prediction of the ecological situation development with a view to preventing and abating the risk of technologically caused ecological disasters down to a biologically allowable level. The methodical framework of the research is an integrated approach combining the studies and analyses of eco-system alterations in mining areas by means of real-time remote monitoring. Vegetation is investigated in the period of growth using one of the vegetation indexes – NDVI. The investigation objects are selected to be the locations of Karelian Pellet, Severonickel and Karabash Med companies operating in different climatic zones. As a result of the implemented research, a new procedure is developed for determining biological parameters of biota by spectral brightness indexes obtained from satellite measurements. It is found that the influence of the total biotic affection area under construction and operation of a mine depends not on the absolute size of this area but on the ratio of the reduced radius of the mining lease to the natural seed transfer distance. The rate of the technology-caused defoliation of the forest eco-system decreases with the distance from the mining lease boundaries according to a hyperbolic function and reaches the background values at a distance of 0.5 mining lease radius from the mining lease boundary.
This work was carried out according to the Programm of the Presidium of the Russian Academy of Sciences No. 1.32П.

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