Comparative Study on Ecological Restoration Effectiveness in Mining Areas Based on FVC: A Case Study of the Maoming Open-Pit Mine

DOI: 10.22161/ijeab.114.23

Abstract:
To improve the ecological condition of the mining area, the Maoming Open-pit Mine in Guangdong Province launched a systematic ecological restoration project in 2013 to gradually restore the mining ecosystem. To quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of the restoration, this study used Landsat series remote sensing images from 2013 to 2021 and applied the Pixel Dichotomy Model to estimate Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC) as the primary evaluation indicator. The spatiotemporal dynamics of vegetation cover before and after ecological restoration were analyzed to quantitatively assess restoration effectiveness. The results show that: (1) The proportion of areas with low vegetation cover continuously decreased from 94.91% to 60.53%, whereas the proportion of areas with medium-high and extremely high vegetation cover increased from 0.11% to 29.16%. Vegetation recovery gradually spread from the periphery toward the interior of the pit. (2) The distribution of vegetation cover classes improved significantly, with a substantial reduction in bare soil areas and a marked increase in areas with medium and high vegetation cover, indicating a significant improvement in overall vegetation coverage. (3) Over the study period, the average vegetation cover in the mining area increased steadily from 1.18% to 18.00%, representing a substantial improvement in vegetation conditions. In conclusion, the restoration practices and outcomes of the Maoming Open-pit Mine provide valuable insights for the ecological restoration and post-restoration effectiveness assessment of similar legacy open-pit mines across China.

Keywords:
Maoming Open-pit Mine, Fractional Vegetation Cover (FVC), Dimidiate Pixel Model, Ecological Restoration, Remote Sensing Spatiotemporal Monitoring

Article Info:
Received: 20 Jun 2026; Received in revised form: 19 Jul 2026; Accepted: 24 Jul 2026; Available online: 01 Aug 2026

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