Land degradation analysis of mine-impacted zone of Kolubara in Serbia

This paper presents the effect of land-use changes on land degradation by utilization of remote sensing methods and the Gavrilović erosion potential method, due to surface mining activities in the period 2001–2011. Studied area includes the zone of influence of the Rudarski basen Kolubara, which covers the exploitation area of the Kolubara coal basin in the Republic of Serbia. The analysis is based on the processing of Landsat 5 satellite images from 2001 and 2011. In the analysis of satellite images, the supervised classification method was used. The results suggest that the observed spatial–temporal area is exposed to erosion as a result of land-use changes. Preliminary conclusion is that the dominant anthropogenic factor, responsible for changes in land use, is pronounced through the mining activity, industrialization, construction as well as agricultural activities. Very small changes in land use that occurred in the period 2001–2010 have led to relatively small amount of change from the aspect of land degradation. Also, due to the planned exploitation of the mine which included into account the sustainability of ecosystems, primarily through appropriate conservation measures, RB Kolubara is not in danger of a possible erosion processes that could undermine the stability of the basin.