Germany is a mining country with an extensive post-mining sector. In a region with a high population density like the Ruhr area, the mining sector is bearing special risks for the safety at the surface, the population and the environment. Unstable abandoned mine openings and sub-surface mine workings, changes in the water table of the groundwater as well as the mine water, uncontrolled methane emissions and acid mine drainage must be considered. Suitable monitoring measures can be the basis to manage these risks. In cooperation with partners, the Research Institute of Post-Mining at the TH Georg Agricola University is working on the application of satellite data from the European space program Copernicus to monitor the current post-mining processes. The Copernicus programme enables the analysis of the hydrogeology of water bodies, the soil water content, the land use and the land coverage. The integration of the information provided by satellites and terrestrial (in-situ) methods will lead to innovative monitoring concepts. These concepts will improve the abilities to reduce post-mining risks and manage the post-mining processes.
CITATION: Kretschmann, J, Mllerherm, S, Goerke-Mallet, P and Melchers, C, 2019. Satellite-bound monitoring of mine sites, in Proceedings Future Mining 2019, pp 99106 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).