DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT DUE TO MINING ACTIVITIES IN TROPICAL FOREST AREAS BASED ON REMOTE SENSING DATA

• Main Author: Yordan Komara, Hazel
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Pertambangan dan operasi berkaitan
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/81320
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Mining activities play an important role in human life, producing various important products in daily life and making a significant contribution to economic growth and development for a country. In the last few decades, there has been an exponential increase in demand for mining products. However, increasing demand for mining products poses significant environmental challenges. As 28.45% of the global mining area, with an area of 28,902 km2, is in tropical forest areas. In this area, various environmental damages have arisen due to massive mining activities, considering the vital role of tropical forests as providers of very valuable ecosystem services. One of the common efforts undertaken is conducting an environmental impact analysis (EIA) in the early stages of a mining project. In practice, there are various methods that can be used. Although these conventional methods have good accuracy, there are certain limitations, especially in terms of long-term monitoring. Several previous studies have examined the impact of mining on the environment, but there are still gaps in understanding the impacts of mining on tropical forest areas. To overcome this gap, this research aims to develop a model for assessing environmental impacts due to mining activities in tropical forest areas. On the other hand, this research sets several supporting objectives, including formulating a mining activity index, evaluating the impact of deforestation due to mining activities, and analyzing mining priority areas that require environmental management. This approach underscores the importance of ongoing monitoring to identify evolving environmental impacts. The novelty in this research lies in the development of a method that utilizes long-term remote sensing data that integrates various variables such as vegetation, soil, atmosphere, physical conditions, air pollution and deforestation and produces priority mining areas for environmental management. This is important because international regulations regarding environmental impact analysis of mining activities emphasize the need for a comprehensive review of various aspects. The results show that 49.51% of the 9,100 mining areas show very high levels of mining activity. Furthermore, there are 33 mining areas located in tropical forest areas which are priority areas for environmental management, with Brazil (87.89%), Ghana (6.06%), Sierra Leone, and Liberia (3.03% each) as priority country. With this, that it can become the basis for a strategy to maintain environmental sustainability, provide guidance for policy makers in reducing the environmental impact of mining activities in tropical forests and implementing sustainable mining practices.