Environmental Impacts of Coal Mining in Jharkhand using Geospatial Analysis

Jharkhand is one of the leading states in terms of economic growth. It is one of the richest mineral zones in the world and boasts of 40% and 29% of India's mineral and coal reserves respectively. Due to its large mineral reserves and proximity to the bustling ports of Kolkata, mining and mineral extraction are the major industries in the state. On the other hand, Jharkhand is also home to 32 of India's indigneous tribes, housing unique heritage and cultural practices, languages etc. These populations are however vulnerable to displacement due to large-scale coal-mining projects that clear away vast tracts of land. Toxic chemicals used in the extraction processes pollute ground-water and cause air and noise pollution. Clearing away forests also aggravates biodiveristy loss. With such wide-ranging impacts, it is important to use effective techniques to communicate the results of environmental impact assessments to policy-makers, so that they tend to a more holistic decision-making approach. An effective method should be able to visually communicate the extent of social, cultural and environmental damages and associated spill-overs due to a mining project, across time and geography.

Advantages of GIS in Environmental Impact Assessment

1. It can visually and intuitively show environmental quality and pollution conditions.
2. Combining information technologies, such as GIS, RS and GPS, EIA can realize updates and dynamic processing & visualization of data.
3. Geographical position has the function of public coordinate connecting all the attributes
4. GIS can manage a variety of environmental information easily and organize this information effectively to conduct environmental statistics.

Applications of GIS in EIA in the Indian Scenario till now:

1. Land-use/land-cover analysis
2. Environmental change-detection studies based on multi-temporal satellite data
3. Predicting vegetation-cover loss following project implementation
4. Mapping soil-erosion intensity over the project area
5. Mapping environmentally/ecologically sensitive areas or hotspots
6. Selecting potential sites for environmental restoration measures
7. Dispersion of pollutants
8. Terrain models used to estimate shadow regions, slope and aspect allocation/ siting: allocation of land for different resources.
9. Preparing comprehensive thematic maps for planners, decision-makers, and environmentalists.

Data Sources:

• LANDSAT-7 Dataset sourced using Google Earth Engine
• Composite Dataset : NDVI < 'LANDSAT/LE07/C01/T1_ANNUAL_NDVI' >
• Giovanni GLDAS Noah
• MCD12Q1-LCType1 for LandCover Types

Sample visualizations of some data collected:

1. NDVI values

2. Land-use types

3. Land Surface Temperature Map