The Analysis of Spatiotemporal Changes in Vegetation Coverage and Driving Factors in the Historically Affected Manganese Mining Areas of Yongzhou City, Hunan Province

Jinbin Liu, Zexin He (), Huading Shi, Yun Zhao, Junke Wang, Anfu Liu, Li Li and Ruifeng Zhu
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Jinbin Liu: School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Zexin He: Technical Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China
Huading Shi: Technical Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China
Yun Zhao: School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Junke Wang: School of Earth Sciences and Resources, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Anfu Liu: Technical Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China
Li Li: Technical Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China
Ruifeng Zhu: Technical Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-25

Abstract: Manganese ore, as an important strategic metal resource for the country, was subject to unreasonable mining practices and outdated smelting technologies in early China, leading to severe ecological damage in mining areas. This study examines the trends in vegetation cover change in the historical manganese mining areas of Yongzhou under the influence of policy, providing technical references for mitigating the ecological impact of these legacy mining areas and offering a basis for adjusting mine restoration policies. This paper takes the manganese mining area in Yongzhou City, Hunan Province as a case study and selects multiple periods of Landsat satellite images from 2000 to 2023. By calculating the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Fractional Vegetation Coverage (FVC), the spatiotemporal changes and driving factors of vegetation coverage in the Yongzhou manganese mining area from 2000 to 2023 were analyzed. The analysis results show that, in terms of time, from 2000 to 2012, the vegetation coverage in the manganese mining area decreased from 0.58 to 0.21, while from 2013 to 2023, it gradually recovered from 0.21 to 0.40. From a spatial perspective, in areas where artificial reclamation was conducted, the vegetation was mainly mildly and moderately degraded, while in areas where no artificial restoration was carried out, significant vegetation degradation was observed. Mining activities were the primary anthropogenic driving force behind the decrease in vegetation coverage, while effective ecological protection projects and proactive policy guidance were the main anthropogenic driving forces behind the increase in vegetation coverage in the mining area.

Keywords: manganese mining area; historic mines; ecological restoration; FVC; policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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