Lignite mine monitoring and mapping using freely-available radar and optical satellite imagery

A methodology for monitoring and mapping lignite mining areas using Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 ESA Copernicus satellite systems is presented. A stochastic regularised super-resolution reconstruction (SRSR) for the enhancement of the Sentinel-2 optical data is developed, and a land monitoring/change analysis based on the enhanced Sentinel-2 images is performed. Additionally, the ground motion is monitored using the Sentinel-1 radar data via the Rheticus service. The proposed methodology is tested on the Amyntaio lignite mine in Ptolemais basin, Greece, for Sentinel images obtained from 2014 to 2018. The Amyntaio area has been of particular interest, as a landslide event occurred on June 10th, 2017, causing major operational disruption and a severe economic loss to the Public Power Plant Cooperation of Greece SA. The methodology proves to be useful for facilitating mapping and monitoring mining and post-mining areas facing similar problems with the Amyntaio lignite site.