Remote-sensing techniques offer an efficient alternative for mapping mining environments and assessing the impacts of mining activities. Airborne multispectral data in the thermal region and hyperspectral data in the optical region, acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) sensor over the Sokolov lignite open-pit mines in the Czech Republic, were analyzed. The emissivity spectrum was calculated for each vegetation-free land pixel in the longwave infrared (LWIR)-region image using the surface-emitted radiation, and the reflectance spectrum was derived from the visible, near-infrared and shortwave-infrared (VNIR-SWIR)-region image using the solar radiation reflected from the surface, after applying atmospheric correction. The combination of calculated emissivity, with the ability to detect quartz, and SWIR reflectance spectra, detecting phyllosilicates and kaolinite in particular, enabled estimating the content of the dominant minerals in the exposed surface. The difference between the emissivity values at λ = 9.68 µm and 8.77 µm was found to be a useful index for estimating the relative amount of quartz in each land pixel in the LWIR image. The absorption depth at around 2.2 µm in the reflectance spectra was used to estimate the relative amount of kaolinite in each land pixel in the SWIR image. OPEN ACCESSRemote Sens. 2014, 6 7006The resulting maps of the spatial distribution of quartz and kaolinite were found to be in accordance with the geological nature and origin of the exposed surfaces and demonstrated the benefit of using data from both thermal and optical spectral regions to map the abundance of the major minerals around the mines.

Irrigated lands in Israel are subjected to salinization processes, mostly as a result of low-quality irrigation water. The Jezre'el Valley in northern Israel, which exemplifies this phenomenon, was selected for this study. This area has been characterized by increasing soil salinity over the years, with consequent increase in soil sodium adsorption ratio, leading to significant deterioration of the soil structure and a reduced infiltration rate. The traditional methods of soil mapping (soil sampling, laboratory tests, and mapping) are time-consuming and do not provide near-real-time information. We evaluated an alternative method consisting of passive and active remote sensing: (i) in situ and airborne sensor spectral measurements, (ii) frequency domain electromagnetic, and (iii) ground penetration radar. A partial least-squares regression model was used to assess a thematic electrical conductivity map of the surface based on the airborne hyperspectral images. A sub-surface salinity map was also generated by applying the surfaceYtoYsub-surface correlation on the surface thematic electrical conductivity map. The generated maps were found to be in good agreement with those based on laboratory chemical data. The results indicated that traditional methods are correlated with remote sensing from the air and ground observations, which can therefore account for soil salinity. Importantly, merging the passive and active remote sensing methods yields a better understanding of the underlying processes than either approach alone.

Mineral nutrition is essential for optimal plant growth. Phosphorus (P) is a relatively small component of leaf dry weight, with a concentration in plant foliage of less than 1%. Despite its low concentration, P is an essential element in plants, mainly used for energy transfer. Mapping P concentration using traditional methods is expensive and usually limited to a small area; it is timeconsuming and covers only a few plant individuals or species. In this study, we demonstrate the use of remote-sensing (RS) data acquired from the feld and airborne hyperspectral sensors to predict and map the P concentration in leaves of different woody Mediterranean plant species. Comprehensive field work included leaf sampling, laboratory analyses, and spectral measurements using a visible, near-infrared and shortwave-infrared (VIS-NIR-SWIR) field spectrometer. Using different spectral configurations, we built accurate models to predict P concentration in leaf samples. The models were built using a NIR data analysis technique with the data mining software PARACUDA II. This software allowed us to identify the correlative wavelengths for P-bearing molecules in selected woody Mediterranean plant species. The hyperspectralbased model for leaf P concentration was extracted from the reflectance data acquired using a manned aircraft carrying a hyperspectral sensor (Specim AisaFenix 1 K). The model gave a reliable correlation between points extracted from the hyperspectral image and samples measured in the field. We believe that the methodology used in this study will help forest ecologists better understand the concentration of P in the foliage of woody Mediterranean plant species.

The growing demand for mineral and energy resources over the last decade has placed the extractive industry under increasing pressure to monitor and reduce the environmental and societal impact throughout the life-cycle of mining operations. Despite the mounting pressure, the industry is still facing the challenge of how to define targets for, and monitor, the impact of mining.

Two HyMap images acquired over the same lignite open-pit mining site in Sokolov, Czech Republic, during the summers of 2009 and 2010 (12 months apart), were investigated in this study. The site selected for this research is one of three test sites (the others being in South Africa and Kyrgyzstan) within the framework of the EO-MINERS FP7 Project (http://www.eo-miners.eu). The goal of EO-MINERS is to "integrate new and existing Earth Observation tools to improve best practice in mining activities and to reduce the mining related environmental and societal footprint". Accordingly, the main objective of the current study was to develop hyperspectral-based means for the detection of small spectral changes and to relate these changes to possible degradation or reclamation indicators of the area under investigation. To ensure significant detection of small spectral changes, the temporal domain was investigated along with careful generation of reflectance information. Thus, intensive spectroradiometric ground measurements were carried out to ensure calibration and validation aspects during both overflights. The performance of these corrections was assessed using the Quality Indicators setup developed under a different FP7 project-EUFAR (http://www.eufar.net), which helped select the highest quality data for further work. This approach allows direct distinction of the real information from noise. The reflectance images were used as input for the application of spectral-based change-detection algorithms and indices to account for small and reliable changes. The related algorithms were then developed and applied on a pixel-by-pixel basis to map spectral changes over the space of a year. Using field spectroscopy and ground truth measurements on both overpass dates, it was possible to explain the results and allocate spatial kinetic processes of the environmental changes during the time elapsed between the flights. It was found, for instance, that significant spectral changes are capable of revealing mineral processes, vegetation status and soil formation long before these are apparent to the naked eye. Further study is being conducted under the above initiative to extend this approach to other mining areas worldwide and to improve the robustness of the developed algorithm.