Remote sensing in the decision of environmental problems of forest remediation at coal strip mines in Siberia

On the territory of Krasnoyarsk region and Irkutsk region in Russia the extraction of coal by opencast methods is produced. In these regions there are 13 large coal pits. Open-pit mining causes significant damage to the environment. Ecological restoration in areas of coal pit is produced through the production of work on recultivation of disturbed lands. Carrying out monitoring of the changing state of natural landscapes in areas of coal mining can be quite effective with the use of remote sensing of the Earth. According to the results of remote sensing, long-term trends in the transformation of local ecosystems on the waste sections of the Irsha-Borodino and Azejskiy coal deposits have been built. The results show that the artificial forest plantations in the forestry reclamation gradually pass into the category of mixed forest with birches, willows, etc. The paper presents the results of forest reclamation on spoil piles formed during the mining of the Irsha-Borodino lignite and Azejskiy coal deposits. On the perfectly-planned surfaces of spoil dumps, the formation of gullies partially destroys the results of work on forest reclamation. With the use of remote-sensing results, catchment of educated, active gullies are investigated; the most common geometric shape of the ravines in the plan is observed. Overall, the results of remote sensing and field studies suggest that the situation with forest intensive reclamation in the studied areas is generally favorable and is balanced in shaping forest ecosystems at abandoned areas of coal deposits. However, in the course of mining-ecological monitoring untoward conditions involving the water erosion on the relief areas with forestation have been marked, which ultimately leads to the formation of gully systems, with ever-expanding dimensions.