Mapping mining environmental impacts using PRISMA hyperspectral imagery: Acid mine drainage (AMD) example

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is considered as one of the main factors causing water pollution in regions with historic or current mining activities. Its generation, release, mobility, and attenuation involves complex processes governed by a combination of physical, chemical, and biological factors. Clearly this phenomenon is highly dynamic depending on other external factors such as precipitations and ground water table fluctuations and conventional monitoring is time and resource-demanding. Recent research studies proved that imaging spectroscopy represents an alternative to conventional methods and an efficient way to characterize mines and assess the potential for AMD discharge while focusing on mapping those minerals serving as indicators of sub-aerial oxidation of pyrite (‘hot spots’) and the subsequent formation of AMD. In this study a potential of new PRISMA hyperspectral satellite sensor for multi-temporal AMD mappng was evaluated. The PRISMA AMD mineral mapping results were compared with existing ground truth data and other validated AMD maps derived using aerial high-resolution hyperspectral imaging data (e.g., CASI/SASI). To conclude, a spectral and spatial resolution of the PRISMA satellite data is sufficient to map this phenomenon at multi-temporal scale and PRISMA data has a potential to be operationally used in remediation projects and other environmental applications.