Abstract
Surface mining is a major driver of land use land cover (LULC) change in many mountainous areas such as the Appalachian region. Typical reclamation practices often result in land cover dominated by grass and shrubs. Assessing ecosystem services that can be obtained from a forest landscape may help policy-makers and other stakeholders fully understand the benefits of forestry-based reclamation (FRA). The objectives of this study are to (1) identify how surface mining and reclamation changed the LULC of a watershed encompassing the north fork of the Kentucky River, (2) assess the biophysical value of four major ecosystem services under the contemporary LULC condition, and (3) assess the benefits of the FRA scenario in the provision of ecosystem services. Geographic Information System (GIS) was used to study the LULC change and InVEST software models for ecosystem services assessment. The results indicate that watershed’s forest area has decreased by 7751 hectares from 2001 to 2011 and mining/reclamation activities may have contributed 65% of the overall changes in LULC. Barren and grassland land covers provide less carbon storage, yield more water, and export more sediments and nutrients than forests. At the watershed level, the FRA scenario increased carbon storage (13%) and reduced water yield (5%), sediment export (40%), and nutrient export (7%). The provision of these ecosystem services varies at the subwatershed level, and such spatial heterogeneity is primarily driven by land cover composition, precipitation, and topography. This study provides critical information regarding the ecological benefits of restoring mined land to assist policy and decision making at landscape scales.
Highlights
Land cover and land use (LULC) change is a major force of global environmental change [1], with as much as 50% of the earth’s ice-free land surface having been transformed as a direct consequence of land uses [2,3]
This study investigated how land use land cover (LULC) has changed in the NFKR watershed and the contribution of mining and reclamation to the overall land cover land use change, followed by the valuation of major ecosystem services under contemporary LULC conditions and the assessment of the benefits of the Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA)
The continuing expansion of cumulative mining area suggests that mining may still be a major driving force of the LULC change in some of the Appalachian landscapes, and this study demonstrates it is the case in the NFKR watershed
Summary
Land cover and land use (LULC) change is a major force of global environmental change [1], with as much as 50% of the earth’s ice-free land surface having been transformed as a direct consequence of land uses [2,3]. Surface coal mining generally involves a sequence of operations including vegetation clearing, topsoil removal, drilling, and blasting the hard strata over the coal seam, and the subsequent extracting and transporting of coals [11,13]. It has been predominantly conducted in the central Appalachian Mountains of the US that are mainly located in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia, and northeastern Tennessee [14]
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