Satellite Imagery for Monitoring and Mapping Soil Chromium Pollution in a Mine Waste Dump

Weathering and oxidation of sulphide minerals in mine wastes release toxic elements in surrounding environments. As an alternative to traditional sampling and chemical analysis methods, the capability of proximal and remote sensing techniques was investigated in this study to predict Chromium (Cr) concentration in 120 soil samples collected from a dumpsite in Sarcheshmeh copper mine, Iran. The samples’ mineralogy and Cr concentration were determined and were then subjected to laboratory reflectance spectroscopy in the range of Visible–Near Infrared–Shortwave Infrared (VNIR–SWIR: 350–2500 nm). The raw spectra were pre-processed using Savitzky-Golay First-Derivative (SG-FD) and Savitzky-Golay Second-Derivative (SG-SD) algorithms. The important wavelengths were determined using Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) coefficients and Genetic Algorithm (GA). Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), Stepwise Multiple Linear Regression (SMLR) and PLSR data mining methods were applied to the selected spectral variables to assess Cr concentration. The developed models were then applied to the selected bands of Aster, Hyperion, Sentinel-2A, and Landsat 8-OLI satellite images of the area. Afterwards, rasters obtained from the best prediction model were segmented using a binary fitness function. According to the outputs of the laboratory reflectance spectroscopy, the highest prediction accuracy was obtained using ANN applied to the SD pre-processed spectra with R2 = 0.91, RMSE = 8.73 mg/kg and RPD = 2.76. SD-ANN also showed an acceptable performance on mapping the spatial distribution of Cr using the ordinary kriging technique. Using satellite images, SD-SMLR provided the best prediction models with R2 values of 0.61 and 0.53 for Hyperion and Sentinel-2A, respectively. This led to the higher visual similarity of the segmented Hyperion and Sentinel-2A images with the Cr distribution map. This study’s findings indicated that applying the best prediction models obtained by spectroscopy to the selected wavebands of Hyperion and Sentinel-2A satellite imagery could be considered a promising technique for rapid, cost-effective and eco-friendly assessment of Cr concentration in highly heterogeneous mining areas.