639 
Symposium on Remote Sensing for Resources Development and Environmental Management / Enschede / August 1986 
Remote sensing assessment of environmental impacts 
caused by phosphat industry destructive influence 
S.C.Mularz 
University of Mining and Metallurgy, Poland 
ABSTRACT: A number of remote sensing techniques, such as colour aerial photography, black 
and white aerial photography and thermal imaging have been used to detect adverse environ 
mental impacts associated with the location of the phosphogypsum dump area. As an effect 
of processing and interpreting remotly sensed data, assessments of water pollution, solid 
waste disposal impacts on toe-failure deformations zones and the degree of vegetation co 
ver damages, have been specified. Results of experiments indicate that remote sensing me 
thods are an irreplaceable tool to solve environmental monitoring, as well as planning 
problems. Wide-area repetitive coverage by remote sensors provides information which is 
not readily available by conventional measuring techniques. 
1 INTRODUCTION 
In a wet-process of phosphoric acid produ 
ction from apatite and phosphorite, phos 
phogypsum is generated as the major by-pro 
duct. In such technology large quantities 
of waste are produced(as a rule, 5-5 tons 
of phosphogypsum are produced for each ton 
of phosphoric acid produced). 
Phosphogypsum is composed mainly of gyp 
sum (CaSG^. 211^0 ) , which makes 93-95$ of 
total waste mass. The remaining 5-7$ is com 
posed od different admixtures like: noncom- 
bined molecules of phosphoric acid and phos 
phates (together 0.4 - 1.5$ of P^O ) * sili 
ceous acid, fluorine compounds, organic mat 
ter and also some radioactive substances. 
Phosphogypsum is very burdensome substance 
to the natural environment, and causes its 
degradation because of harmful contamina 
tion. Therefore, it is necessary to study 
and to monitor environmental changes occur- 
ing in phosphogypsum dumping areas. 
Remote sensing techniques are very useful 
for this purpose, as they make it possible 
to record the complex data, which is nece 
ssary for a thourough interpretation of na 
tural conditions. They also make a qualita 
tive and quantitative analysis of phenome- 
nas and processes that happen on dumping 
and adjacent regions, possible. 
The results of investigations, based on 
remote sensing techniques, of a phospho 
gypsum dumping area of a chemical factory, 
near Szczecin, are presented in the paper. 
Presently, 3-5 million tons of waste are 
acumullated here annually, which accounts 
for 70$ of the phosphogypsum generated in 
Poland. 
The main purpose of the investigation was 
to asses the usefulness of remote sensing 
techniques for: 
- the creation of a complex environmental 
monitoring system for the dumping area, 
- periodically mapping the progress in 
dumping operations, 
- the assessement of the hazard for st^ff, 
heaping machines and constructions, which 
are located close to the dump area. 
The objective of the research reported here 
was to also examine the environmental dama 
ges in the dump influence zone. 
2 STUDY AREA, PROBLEM DEFINITION AND DATA 
Geographically, the dumping area is loca 
ted near the Odra river estuary, north of 
Szczecin ( Figure 1). 
25 km 
■ - —» 
Figure 1. Location of the study area on 
Landsat MSS ( Band 4) image portion. 
Morphologically,it lays on the flooding 
terrace of the Odra river. Originally the 
terrain was flat, with an average height of 
1 m below sea level. Considering the geolo 
gical conditions, it was found that the dump 
subgrade is composed of holocene deposits, 
which are organic in the upper part (peats, 
organic outwashes) and, in the lower part, 
consist of sand and gravel layers. They are 
underlaid by older pleistocene clays, some 
times interbeded with sands. The holocene 
deposits are 8-11 meters thick, locally up 
to 15 meters. The pleistocene deposits are 
several tenths of a meter in thickness. 
From a geotechnical point of view the up 
per organic layer is very weak, practically 
unstable, easy to defOrmate under loading. 
This feature of the base was confirmed by 
toe-failure which occurs on a large scale 
during the dump formation. As a result of