Dataset Information

An update on global mining land use.

ABSTRACT: The growing demand for minerals has pushed mining activities into new areas increasingly affecting biodiversity-rich natural biomes. Mapping the land use of the global mining sector is, therefore, a prerequisite for quantifying, understanding and mitigating adverse impacts caused by mineral extraction. This paper updates our previous work mapping mining sites worldwide. Using visual interpretation of Sentinel-2 images for 2019, we inspected more than 34,000 mining locations across the globe. The result is a global-scale dataset containing 44,929 polygon features covering 101,583 km² of large-scale as well as artisanal and small-scale mining. The increase in coverage is substantial compared to the first version of the dataset, which included 21,060 polygons extending over 57,277 km². The polygons cover open cuts, tailings dams, waste rock dumps, water ponds, processing plants, and other ground features related to the mining activities. The dataset is available for download from https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.942325 and visualisation at www.fineprint.global/viewer .

SUBMITTER: Maus V

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9307859 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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An update on global mining land use.

Maus Victor V Giljum Stefan S da Silva Dieison M DM Gutschlhofer Jakob J da Rosa Robson P RP Luckeneder Sebastian S Gass Sidnei L B SLB Lieber Mirko M McCallum Ian I

Scientific data 20220722 1

The growing demand for minerals has pushed mining activities into new areas increasingly affecting biodiversity-rich natural biomes. Mapping the land use of the global mining sector is, therefore, a prerequisite for quantifying, understanding and mitigating adverse impacts caused by mineral extraction. This paper updates our previous work mapping mining sites worldwide. Using visual interpretation of Sentinel-2 images for 2019, we inspected more than 34,000 mining locations across the globe. The ...[more]

PMID: 35869082

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Project description:Land-use change is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity globally. The effects of land use on biodiversity manifest primarily at local scales which are not captured by the coarse spatial grain of current global land-use mapping. Assessments of land-use impacts on biodiversity across large spatial extents require data at a similar spatial grain to the ecological processes they are assessing. Here, we develop a method for statistically downscaling mapped land-use data that combines generalized additive modeling and constrained optimization. This method was applied to the 0.5° Land-use Harmonization data for the year 2005 to produce global 30″ (approx. 1 km(2)) estimates of five land-use classes: primary habitat, secondary habitat, cropland, pasture, and urban. The original dataset was partitioned into 61 bio-realms (unique combinations of biome and biogeographical realm) and downscaled using relationships with fine-grained climate, land cover, landform, and anthropogenic influence layers. The downscaled land-use data were validated using the PREDICTS database and the geoWiki global cropland dataset. Application of the new method to all 61 bio-realms produced global fine-grained layers from the 2005 time step of the Land-use Harmonization dataset. Coarse-scaled proportions of land use estimated from these data compared well with those estimated in the original datasets (mean R (2): 0.68 ± 0.19). Validation with the PREDICTS database showed the new downscaled land-use layers improved discrimination of all five classes at PREDICTS sites (P < 0.0001 in all cases). Additional validation of the downscaled cropping layer with the geoWiki layer showed an R (2) improvement of 0.12 compared with the Land-use Harmonization data. The downscaling method presented here produced the first global land-use dataset at a spatial grain relevant to ecological processes that drive changes in biodiversity over space and time. Integrating these data with biodiversity measures will enable the reporting of land-use impacts on biodiversity at a finer resolution than previously possible. Furthermore, the general method presented here could be useful to others wishing to downscale similarly constrained coarse-resolution data for other environmental variables.

Dataset Information

An update on global mining land use.

Publications

An update on global mining land use.

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