Title: Lignite mine monitoring and mapping using freely-available radar and optical satellite imagery

Authors: Marianthi Stefouli; Antigoni Panagiotopoulou; Eleni Charou; Panagiota Spastra; Emmanuel Bratsolis; Nicholas Madamopoulos; Stavros Perantonis

Addresses: Hellenic Survey of Geology and Mineral Exploration (H.S.G.M.E.), 13677 Acharne, Greece ' Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Greece ' Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Greece ' Planetek Hellas, 44 Kifisias Avenue, 15125 Marousi, Athens, Greece ' Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Greece ' Department of Aeronautical Sciences, Hellenic Air Force Academy, TGA 1010 Dhekeleia, Greece; Department of Electrical Engineering, The City College of New York, 160 Convent Av., New York, NY 10031, USA ' Institute of Informatics and Telecommunications, NCSR Demokritos, 15310 Ag. Paraskevi, Greece

Abstract: A methodology for monitoring and mapping lignite mining areas using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 ESA Copernicus satellite systems is presented. A stochastic regularised super-resolution reconstruction (SRSR) for the enhancement of the Sentinel-2 optical data is developed, and a land monitoring/change analysis based on the enhanced Sentinel-2 images is performed. Additionally, the ground motion is monitored using the Sentinel-1 radar data via the Rheticus service. The proposed methodology is tested on the Amyntaio lignite mine in Ptolemais basin, Greece, for Sentinel images obtained from 2014 to 2018. The Amyntaio area has been of particular interest, as a landslide event occurred on June 10th, 2017, causing major operational disruption and a severe economic loss to the Public Power Plant Cooperation of Greece SA. The methodology proves to be useful for facilitating mapping and monitoring mining and post-mining areas facing similar problems with the Amyntaio lignite site.

Keywords: lignites; surface mining; landslides; Sentinel-1; ground motion; radar; Rheticus service; multispectral; Sentinel-2; Lorentzian estimator; BTV regularisation; super-resolution reconstruction; self-organising maps; SOM; land cover change analysis.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMME.2019.104445

International Journal of Mining and Mineral Engineering, 2019 Vol.10 No.2/3/4, pp.131 - 157

Received: 28 Dec 2018
Accepted: 29 Mar 2019
Published online: 12 Jan 2020 *

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