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Investigating the potential of radar interferometry for monitoring rural artisanal cobalt mines in the democratic republic of the congo

Brown, Chloe; Daniels, Anna; Boyd, Doreen S.; Sowter, Andrew; Foody, Giles; Kara, Siddharth

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Authors

Chloe Brown

Anna Daniels

DOREEN BOYD doreen.boyd@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Earth Observation

Andrew Sowter

GILES FOODY giles.foody@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Geographical Information

SIDDHARTH KARA SIDDHARTH.KARA@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Associate Professor (British Academy Global Professor)



Abstract

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Greater awareness of the serious human rights abuses associated with the extraction and trade of cobalt in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has applied increasing pressure for businesses to move towards more responsible and sustainable mineral sourcing. Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) activities in rural and remote locations may provide heightened opportunities to conceal the alleged human rights violations associated with mining, such as: hazardous working conditions, health impacts, child labour, child trafficking, and debt bondage. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of the Intermittent Small Baseline Subset (ISBAS) interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) method, teamed with high temporal frequency Sentinel-1 imagery, for monitoring ASM activity in rural locations of the “Copperbelt”, the DRC. The results show that the ISBAS descriptive variables (mean, standard deviation, minimum, and maximum) were significantly different (p-value = ≤ 0.05) between mining and non-mining areas. Additionally, a significant difference was found for the ISBAS descriptive variables mean, standard deviation, and minimum between the different mine types (industrial, surface, and tunnels). As expected, a high level of subsidence (i.e., negative ISBAS pixel value) was a clear indicator of mine activity. Trial activity thresholds were set for the descriptive variables mean (-2.43 mm/yr) and minimum (-5.36 mm/yr) to explore an ISBAS approach to active mine identification. The study concluded that the ISBAS method has great potential as a monitoring tool for ASM, with the ability to separate mining and non-mining areas based on surface motion values, and further distinguish the different mine types (industrial, surface, and tunnel). Ground data collection and further development of ISBAS analysis needs to be made to fully understand the value of an ISBAS-based ASM monitoring system. In particular, surrounding the impact of seasonality relative to longer-term trends in ASM activity.

Citation

Brown, C., Daniels, A., Boyd, D. S., Sowter, A., Foody, G., & Kara, S. (2020). Investigating the potential of radar interferometry for monitoring rural artisanal cobalt mines in the democratic republic of the congo. Sustainability, 12(23), Article 9834. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239834

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 18, 2020
Online Publication Date Nov 24, 2020
Publication Date Dec 1, 2020
Deposit Date Nov 25, 2020
Publicly Available Date Nov 25, 2020
Journal Sustainability (Switzerland)
Electronic ISSN 2071-1050
Publisher MDPI
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 12
Issue 23
Article Number 9834
DOI https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239834
Keywords Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment; Geography, Planning and Development; Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5069758
Publisher URL https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/23/9834

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