The Accuracy of Land Use and Cover Mapping across Time in Environmental Disaster Zones: The Case of the B1 Tailings Dam Rupture in Brumadinho, Brazil

Carlos Roberto Mangussi Filho, Renato Farias do Valle Junior, Maytê Maria Abreu Pires de Melo Silva, Rafaella Gouveia Mendes, Glauco de Souza Rolim, Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissarra, Marília Carvalho de Melo, Carlos Alberto Valera, Fernando António Leal Pacheco () and Luís Filipe Sanches Fernandes
Additional contact information
Carlos Roberto Mangussi Filho: Geoprocessing Laboratory, Uberaba Campus, Federal Institute of Triângulo Mineiro (IFTM), Uberaba 38064-790, MG, Brazil
Renato Farias do Valle Junior: Geoprocessing Laboratory, Uberaba Campus, Federal Institute of Triângulo Mineiro (IFTM), Uberaba 38064-790, MG, Brazil
Maytê Maria Abreu Pires de Melo Silva: Geoprocessing Laboratory, Uberaba Campus, Federal Institute of Triângulo Mineiro (IFTM), Uberaba 38064-790, MG, Brazil
Rafaella Gouveia Mendes: Geoprocessing Laboratory, Uberaba Campus, Federal Institute of Triângulo Mineiro (IFTM), Uberaba 38064-790, MG, Brazil
Glauco de Souza Rolim: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Via de Acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal 14884-900, SP, Brazil
Teresa Cristina Tarlé Pissarra: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Via de Acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal 14884-900, SP, Brazil
Marília Carvalho de Melo: Secretaria de Estado de Meio Ambiente e Desenvolvimento Sustentável, Cidade Administrativa do Estado de Minas Gerais, Rodovia João Paulo II, 4143, Bairro Serra Verde, Belo Horizonte 31630-900, MG, Brazil
Carlos Alberto Valera: Coordenadoria Regional das Promotorias de Justiça do Meio Ambiente das Bacias dos Rios Paranaíba e Baixo Rio Grande, Rua Coronel Antônio Rios, 951, Uberaba 38061-150, MG, Brazil
Fernando António Leal Pacheco: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias, Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Via de Acesso Prof. Paulo Donato Castellane, s/n, Jaboticabal 14884-900, SP, Brazil
Luís Filipe Sanches Fernandes: Center for Research and Agro-Environmental and Biological Technologies (CITAB), University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Ap. 1013, 5001-801 Vila Real, Portugal

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-21

Abstract: The rupture of a tailings dam causes several social, economic, and environmental impacts because people can die, the devastation caused by the debris and mud waves is expressive and the released substances may be toxic to the ecosystem and humans. There were two major dam failures in the Minas Gerais state, Brazil, in the last decade. The first was in 2015 in the city of Mariana and the second was in 2019 in the municipality of Brumadinho. The extent of land use and cover changes derived from those collapses were an expression of their impacts. Thus, knowing the changes to land use and cover after these disasters is essential to help repair or mitigate environmental degradation. This study aimed to diagnose the changes to land cover that occurred after the failure of dam B1 in Brumadinho that affected the Ferro-Carvão stream watershed. In addition to the environmental objective, there was the intention of investigating the impact of image preparation, as well as the spatial and spectral resolution on the classification’s accuracy. To accomplish the goals, visible and near-infrared bands from Landsat (30 m), Sentinel-2 (10 m), and PlanetScope Dove (4.77 m) images collected between 2018 and 2021 were processed on the Google Earth Engine platform. The Pixel Reduction to Median tool was used to prepare the record of images, and then the random forest algorithm was used to detect the changes in land cover caused by the tailings dam failure under the different spatial and spectral resolutions and to provide the corresponding measures of accuracy. The results showed that the spatial resolution of the images affects the accuracy, but also that the selected algorithm and images were all capable of accurately classifying land use and cover in the Ferro-Carvão watershed and their changes over time. After the failure, mining/tailings areas increased in the impacted zone of the Ferro-Carvão stream, while native forest, pasture, and agricultural lands declined, exposing the environmental deterioration. The environment recovered in subsequent years (2020–2021) due to tailings removal and mobilization.

Keywords: remote sensing; random forest classifier; Google Earth Engine; socio-environmental impacts; soil cover change; environmental degradation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6949/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6949/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:8:p:6949-:d:1128711

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().