Analysis of Vegetation Variation Around Zijinshan Gold and Copper Mine, Fujian, China

It is a fast and effective method to evaluate the ecological environment of mining area using remote sensing technology. In this paper, Landsat series data from 1992 to 2017 were used to monitor the change of ecological environment of Zijin Mine, located in the west of Fujian province, China. After radiometric calibration, the normalized difference vegetation indexes (NDVI) of Landsat TM or OLI from 1992 to 2017 were calculated. Based on NDVI data, the change of vegetation coverage of environment around Zijin mountain gold-copper deposit was analyzed. The results indicated that: (1)The area of Zijin mountain gold-copper deposit was increasing from 1992-2017. During 1996-2001, the area of mine was increasing rapidly because of large-scale blasting for removing loading strata in 1997, and it became obviously larger from 2014-2017 due to the copper price increases. (2)the NDVI around Zijin mountain raised from 1992 to 2014, indicating a better vegetation recovery, but it reduced from 2014 to 2017, indicating a worse vegetation recovery. low NDVI mainly exist in the middle of Zijin deposit, which is relate to mining activities. These results can give some scientific references for assessment of Zijin gold-copper deposit ecological environment.