202 Since 1961 Application of Aerial Photogrammetric Technology For
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since 1961 BALTICA Volume 32 Number 2 December 2019: 202–209 https://doi.org/10.5200/baltica.2019.2.7 Application of aerial photogrammetric technology for determination and parametrization of areas affected by extraction of raw materials Audrius Armanavičius, Jonas Satkūnas Armanavičius, A., Satkūnas, J. Application of aerial photogrammetric technology for determination and para- metrization of areas affected by extraction of raw materials. Baltica, 32 (2), 202–209. Vilnius. ISSN 0067-3064. Manuscript submitted 19 July 2019 / Accepted 27 November 2019 / Published online 12 December 2019 © Baltica 2019 Abstract. Extraction of mineral raw materials is increasing due to economic development and must be a nor- mal process under due control and environmental supervision. However, there are a number of sites where the exploitation was stopped and mining sites were abandoned without proper restoration. Also, there are sites where mineral resources were or are extracted illegally thus making significant damage to the environment and economy. In order to collect information on land impacted by mining and extraction activities, for the first time a special project was carried out for the entire territory of Lithuania. The project consisted of gathering of information on damaged areas from various sources, field surveys and systematization of collected data. In or- der to obtain volumetric data, a special technology of aerial photogrammetry was developed and successfully applied. It was detected that the number of damaged sites > 0.3 ha reached up to 3,300. It is estimated that a total amount of illegally extracted minerals in last 15–20 years could be up to 15 million m3. The aerial photo- grammetry was proved as a relevant technology and this could be applied for the control of the restoration of damaged land as well as for the monitoring of hazardous geological processes, e.g. coastal erosion, karst. Keywords: UAV measurements; proved mineral deposits; indicated mineral resources; sand and gravel; quarries; illegal excavation Audrius Armanavičius ([email protected]), Jonas Satkūnas ([email protected]), Nature Re- search Centre, Institute of Geology and Geography, Akademijos Str. 2, LT-08412 Vilnius, Lithuania INTRODUCTION groundwater, dolomite, limestone, gravel, clay, peat, sand, oil and sapropel (Januška et al. 2018). Due to In terms of value, rates of extraction and consump- the growth of construction industry during the last tion, the world’s most important mineral resources are 6 years there was observed an increase of extraction aggregates such as gravel, sand, dolomite, crushed rates of limestone, dolomite, sand and gravel. Some stone that are extracted in open mines, quarries and exhausted quarries were replaced by new ones. pits. Peat is harvested in open fields as well. All min- The mineral resources are extracted according to ing places interrupt natural landscape and change land the specially elaborated mining and restoration plans use for a certain period of time (Buddhi et al. 2018). which comprise e.g. the description of the way and It is noteworthy that demand for mineral raw means of exploitation, depth of the quarry, estimated materials is constantly increasing, and over the last time of extraction, way of restoration of the site after ex- century there were extracted more mineral resources ploitation (making of a water body or planting of a for- than during the entire previous existence of mankind est, etc.). In this way, the extraction process is planned (Motūza et al. 2018). and managed by a mining company and supervised by During the recent years, nine types of minerals state institutions, like Lithuanian Geological Survey, have been extracted in Lithuania: fresh and mineral Environmental Protection Department under the Min- 202 istry of Environment and The Environmental Protec- a scale of 1:10,000 were reviewed. This allowed to tion Agency. The proper implementation of the mining identify territories with a size > 0.3 ha revealing trac- and restoration plans allows to save the surrounding es of mining activities located outside the boundaries environmental values in the best way (Čyžienė 2015). of legal mining areas (quarries). The identification of In addition, the mining companies must comply with the ownership rights of all the lands damaged by the the requirements of the listed-above state institutions. mining works was performed according to the data of These consist of: providing quarterly reports on min- the Real Property Cadastre and Register. The detected ing, paying the fees for the extracted minerals, prop- damaged areas were divided into small quarries which erly closing the quarries after the completed mining were established by land owners for their local needs and restoration of the used land and the surrounding and other mining/excavation damaged areas >0.3 ha environment according to the plan. (regardless of the land ownership form). All areas were The Lithuanian Geological Survey under the Min- grouped into the following (Fig. 1): istry of Environment possesses information on areas 1) located on the lands of the State land; undertaken by industrial quarries that are exploited 2) located on land of complex property; with permissions and follow the above-mentioned 3) located on leased state-owned land; mining plans. However, so far there are no avail- 4) located on private land; able systematic records regarding the damaged land 5) land affected by mining operations in peat- caused by other types of mining (i.e. pits, small quar- lands; ries with the area not exceeding 0.5 ha and depth not 6) small legal quarries or pits. more than 2 m) as well as their environmental state. The investigation revealed 3,300 territories dam- The lack of such information causes serious prob- aged by the mining operations (Fig. 1). 1,796 of these lems like these: public authorities cannot take deci- land sites are private property. There were identified sions concerning the management of the territories 614 small quarries. The number of peatlands is 106; that were damaged by the mining activities; public however, they occupy 12,166 ha or 77.9% of the total authorities cannot effectively stop illegal mining and area affected by mining activities. Therefore, it is as- demand a proper restoration. This results in the losses sumed that major environmental damage was caused of the state budget due to free use of resources avoid- by exploitation and abandonment of peatlands. In a ing payment of taxes. vast majority of such peatlands, the drainage systems In 2015 the Lithuanian Geological Survey started are destroyed (Figs 2, 3). the implementation of the State Management Plan for In the following stage, a number of damaged areas the Damaged Land 2014–2020 approved by the Min- were selected for detailed mapping. ister of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania (by 1,172 sites were selected in total: Order No. D1-578). This action comprised an audit of 1) land of complex ownership – 72 sites, all mining damaged areas > 0.3 ha, and the project was 2) state land – 449 sites, titled “Collection and systematization of information 3) small quarries – 614 sites, on damaged lands” (Juozapavičius et al. 2015). 4) peatlands – 37 sites. The purpose of this investigation was to accumu- All mapped territories were divided into two groups: late information on the extent of illegal or abandoned (1) open areas without coverage of trees or bushes and mining areas and to identify the condition of the land (2) vegetated areas. Surface mapping of vegetated ar- damaged by any mining operation. Other goals were eas was performed using Spectra Precision Promark addressed to: i) calculate excavated mineral resourc- 700, GPS, Trimble R6 and Stonex S10N devices. In es, ii) accumulate and locate information on damaged addition to GPS systems, direct geodetic measurements lands in Lithuania into the State Geological Informa- were also performed. The following robotic tachome- tion System and initiate the recultivation works. ters were employed: Trimble 5603 DR Standard, Trim- ble S6 DR 300+ and Leica TCR 705. The mapping in METHODOLOGY open areas was carried out using the remote sensing method – aerial photogrammetry with unmanned aeri- In the course of implementation of the project “Col- al vehicles (UAV). Airborne photogrammetry is being lection and systematization of information on damaged increasingly applied for digital terrain models (Müller lands” the inquiries to the state institutions, environ- et al. 2014), monitoring of slope instability (Chandler, mental protection departments as well as to municipal Moore 2014), structural geology (Vasuki et al. 2014) administrations were distributed asking information on and elsewhere; however, in Lithuania the UAV-based the damaged territories. This was followed by a detailed photogrammetry was firstly introduced and applied by analysis of the aerial images of the period 2012–2014 joint stock company GJ Magma for measurements of of the whole territory of Lithuania in order to identify quarries. In the same way, the UAV photogrammetry mining activities. In total, about 2,800 map sheets at was tested for measuring damaged lands. Two UAV 203 Fig. 1 Location of damaged land plots in Lithuania probing systems were employed: Sensefly eBee (eBee 2014) and Trimble UX5 (UX5 2016). The base of both systems is a lightweight airplane with a built-in photo- graphic component (Fig. 4). Using these aerial probing systems, a flight for an UAV is planned with planning software: software eMotion for UAV SenseFly eBee and Aerial Imaging for UAV Trimble UX5. In order to start mapping of a damaged area, ground control points (GCPs) must Fig. 2 Damaged land area distribution (ha) be set for the determination of the total of points of the aerial photographs that are overlapping (red flags in Fig. 5). This helps to determine accurately coordi- nates and altitudes of the above-mentioned GPNS mo- bile receivers. The flights designed for probing of the area provided a great number of photos (green area in Fig.