Assessment of Environmental Degradation Using Remote Sensing and GIS

This research is concentrated on the impacts of coal mining and seam fires like land degradation, increased surface temperature, and methane emission using remote sensing. Temporal data sets of three years (1994, 2004, and 2014) were compared and changes were predicted for 2024 using CA MARKOV modelling for LULC. Using thermal remote sensing techniques Landsat5(TM) and Landsat 8(TIRS&OLI) change in surface temperature over the years was analyzed and statistical approach was employed to quantify the relation between Mining area temperature and other land use/land cover. The analysis was showing high temperature in coal mining areas when compared to the other land uses, and when compared to 1994, 2004 and 2014 min-maximum temperature also increased drastically. CMHI analysis also gave similar results for temperature in case of different land use and land cover classes. Methane is a greenhouse gas and its emission a major causative factor for global warming. Coal mining activities in Jharia lead to methane leakages in different parts of Jharia. It was detected using Hyperion data and normalized hydrocarbon index.