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AN ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING SYSTEM FOR THE LUSATIAN BROWN COAL MINING INDUSTRY IN 
EAST GERMANY 
M. Pilarski, S. Oppitz 
FEZ Remote Sensing Centre Potsdam, Germany 
Commission VII, Working Group 2 
KEY WORDS: Environmental monitoring system, remote sensing, multitemporal, mining industry, GIS 
ABSTRACT 
The paper presents investigations carried out to generate a suitable tool for acquisition, analysis and assessment of long-term 
changes of natural conditions in the region of opencast brown coal mines in Lower Lusatia (Free State of Saxony, Germany). 
It shows how multitemporal data sets and remote sensing methods contribute to describe changes in'nature by using GIS 
techniques. Seven Landsat-TM data sets ranging from 1985 until 1996, which were radiometrically calibrated and georeferenced, 
were selected to study the relationship between remotely sensed data versus biotic and abiotic factors like habitat classification as 
well as soil types or ground water levels. For this purpose the vegetation index NDVI was derived from the satellite data. Different 
trend estimations in local and regional dimensions of changes which are indicated by the NDVI variations are discussed with 
regard to their cause and effect relations. 
KURZFASSUNG 
Es werden Untersuchungen vorgestellt, die zur Entwicklung eines geeigneten Werkzeugs für die Gewinnung, Analyse und 
Einschätzung von Langzeitveränderungen der natürlichen Bedingungen im Gebiet eines Braunkohlentagebaus in der Niederlausitz 
(Freistaat Sachsen) durchgeführt wurden. 
Der Beitrag zeigt. wie multitemporale Fernerkundungsmethoden zusammen mit GIS-Techniken zur qualitativen Beschreibung und 
Quantifizierung von Veränderungen insbesondere der Vegetation nutzbar sind. Sieben LANDSAT-TM Datensátze zwischen 1985 
und 1996 wurden für die Untersuchungen von Zusammenhängen zwischen Fernerkundungsdaten und biotischen sowie abiotischen 
Faktoren, wie sie durch eine Biotopklassifikation, Bodentypen und Grundwasserflurabständen widergespiegelt werden, aus- 
gewühlt. radiometrisch kalibriert und georeferenziert. Für diesen Zweck wurde als Merkmal der aus den Satellitendaten abgeleitete 
Vegetationsindex NDVI berechnet. Verschiedene Trendbestimmungen in lokaler und regionaler Dimension der Veránderungen, 
erkennbar in den Variationen der NDVI-Werte werden diskutiert in Bezug auf ihre Ursachen und Wirkungsbeziehungen. 
1 PROBLEM AND TASK results of remote sensing analyses are integrated in a 
Geographic Information System of the study area. By this 
investigations a first step was realised to apply satellite remote 
sensing in practice. 
Fig. 1: Location of the study area in Germany 
The production of brown coal operating in opencast technology 
represents a sustainable change of the whole landscape in the 
direct mining field. The actual landscapes with their vegetation 
and soil were destroyed, the geological sediments have been 
rearranged and the ground-water lowering has been carried out 
for more than 50 years. But there are also impacts on nature in 
the surroundings of the opencast mine. The main influence is 
affected by the ground-water lowering. This process has led to 
a reversal of the main direction of the ground-water flow and to 
ground-water lowering holes with more than ten kilometres 
extension in some cases. The Lusatian mining industry takes 
responsibility for these mining residuals. It has organised a lot 
of monitoring activities like ground-water observation in 
boreholes. In the study area of the opencast mine of Nochten 
(Fig. land Fig. 2) an inventory of the biotic and abiotic 
landscape factors was made for the whole surroundings aimed 
at predicting the mining impact. This is one of the main 
preconditions for planning suitable compensation measures 
bearing the real loss of landscape and for minimising the 
impact. In this context satellite remote sensing contributes to 
develop this local and regional monitoring for registration and 
determination of land use and vegetation changes as an 
effective tool in the planning of recompensation measures. The 
  
Intemational Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXII, Part 7, Budapest, 1998 151