Service Description: MTR analysis
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Description: This project analyzed the Mountain Top Removal which occured for Coal Extraction in the the Appalachian Coal Regions of Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia. Becasue the project encompassed such a large area, it was divided into four site areas. Our group, three, analzed portions lying within Kentucky and Ohio. Using data and methods provided by SkyTruth, a non-profit agency focused on revealing human-caused changes to landscapes using remotely sensed data, we compared the analysis they preformed in 2005 to our analyasis using 2010 data.
ERDAS Imagine software was used to create an unsupervised Image Classificiation of MTR and Non-MTR areas with the Group Three project location. This image was then reclassified within ArcMap to classify only MTR areas. The reclassified raster was converted to a polygong to edit for noise and interference. SkyTruth provided ridge data which was used to select locations of MTR data lying on ridges. Because some features such as hydrology and roads contain similar pixel values to MTR areas, a sereis of buffers and erases were used to eliminate any conflicts. The MTR areas were analyzed for accuracy by generating random points and comparing the MTR value to the imagery. Our groups accuracy was 97%. We calculated the acreage for our 2010 data and determined that 131,144 additional acres of mountain tops were removed between the 2005 and 2010 analysis. Prior to this lab, I was unaware of the practice of extracting coal through mountain top removal. I am greatly concerned abou the impacts not only upon the immediate areas, but also the lands and townships nearby. The destruction and contamination, even with current reclamation measures in place do little to salvage the environment. It is my hope that agencies such as SkyTruth and other grass roots organizations can garner government support to stand up to the Coal Industry to elimnate this practice.
Copyright Text: SkyTruth (www.skytruth.org), UWF GIS, Rachel Hamaty, Maggie Roth, Charmaine Hingada and Austin Adkinson
Spatial Reference: 32617 (32617)
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Spatial Reference: 32617 (32617)
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Spatial Reference: 32617 (32617)
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