Journal of Ecology and Rural Environment ›› 2016, Vol. 32 ›› Issue (2): 178-186.doi: 10.11934/j.issn.1673-4831.2016.02.002

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Characteristics of Land Degradation in Mining Areas of Inner Mongolia Grassland

BAI Shu-ying1, WU Qi1, SHEN Wei-shou2, LI Hai-dong2, ZHU Qian-wen1   

  1. 1. College of Geography and Remote Sensing, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China;
    2. Nanjing Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Nanjing 210042, China
  • Received:2015-11-11 Online:2016-03-25 Published:2016-04-01

Abstract:

Along with the intensifying of exploitation of mineral resources in Inner Mongolia, a number of ecological environmental problems have appeared in the already ecologically fragile grassland areas hindering seriously development of the local economy and ecological construction. A study was carried out to explore characteristics of land degradation in mining areas of Inner Mongolia in the past 20 years. Four mining areas, Bayan Obo iron ore, Zhungeer coal mine, Damao Banner fluorite and Sumoqagan fluorite, were selected as typical cases for the study. With the aid of remote sensing and GIS, land damage, vegetation destruction and soil erosion in these areas were evaluated. Results show that road construction during the development of the mining areas caused obvious damage to vegetation; grassland was the major type of land subjected damage; the indices of NDVI, coverage, biomass and bio-abundance within the radius of 500 m of the mining areas were much lower in value than those in other areas; and soil erosion displayed a developing trend from light to moderate. All the indices demonstrates that the closer to the mining area, the more serious the land degradation.

Key words: grassland of Inner Mongolia, mining area, land degradation, ecological environment

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