John R. Ferguson II, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Huntington
James O. Brumfield, Marshall University, Huntington USA
Joseph Langdon, NASA, Ames Research Center

Abstract | Full Paper (PDF, 8.9 MB)

The Monongahela National Forest spans 10 counties in eastern central West Virginia. It has been an area of high mining and timbering activities throughout much of the early to mid twentieth century. As a result, the United States Forest Service (USFS) has focused reclamation and remediation efforts on the abandoned mine land areas. Much of the area has been subjected to mining after effects such as acid mine drainage, structural remains, gob/spoil piles, garbage piles, mine portals, and highwalls. In 1998 the USFS contracted with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to provide a detailed georeferenced inventory with a Global Positioning System (GPS) for the mining remains previously mentioned. In addition, the inventory included quantitative descriptions and water quality data.

A geobiophysical model containing the abandoned mine land features will provide the information necessary for appropriate steps toward reclamation of the area. The primary objective of this research creates a GIS database infrastructure for the Monongahela National Forest inventory integrating Landsat 7 +ETM 30 m and 15 m imagery, and USGS Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangles (DOQQ's), as a more modern image base map. This data base can then be used to simulate the resolution and visual effects that can be seen through high resolution space borne imagery such as IKONOS (Space Imaging, 2002) and Quickbird (Digital Globe, 2002). This, in comparison to the USGS Digital Raster Graphics (DRG) topographic maps, allows for more current geobiophysical modeling in a remote sensing system and provides an easily updated data management tool.

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