Assessment of soil contamination using remote sensing data in the Tamsag-Bulag oil field, Mongolia

Abstract

Although field surveus represent an essential method for determining oil contamination of soils and soil cover, the use of remote sensing techniques has become one of the main trends over recent years due to their economic and temporary advantages. The fundamental basis of this approach is the assessment of changes in vegetation cover by vegetation indices as indicator. In this study, the problems of assessment of the soil cover contamination during oil production are considered. It is aimed to select and evaluate objective criteria for soil cover contamination with oil in the Tamsag–Bulag field (Eastern Gobi, Mongolia). For this purpose, during the period of maximum vegetation growth, various vegetation indices were investigated at test sites (4 km2) from 2015 to 2019. The Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Soil Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI) were used with Sentinel-2 and MODIS of the Terra satellite images at 30 and 250 m resolution, respectively. The monitoring of the land quality with satellite images via NDVI and SAVI allows us to assess the area of oil contamination of the soils and soil cover. The significant increase in the values of the NDVI and SAVI at a distance of more than 4 km from the center of the Tamsag-Bulag oil field is shown. The obtained results indicate the possibility of assessment and monitoring the state of the oil-ed territories of the Eastern Gobi by NDVI и SAVI using satellite images.