Geospatial Assessment of the State of the Samara River Floodplain in the Area of Coal Mining in Western Donbas

Abstract

The discharge of highly mineralized mine waters of the Western Donbass negativelyaffected the Samara Bay area, which is of great fishery importance. Mine water storage pondswere built in deep erosional cuts in the territories of mine fields in the gullies of Kosminnaya,Taranova, Glinyana and Svidovok. The screening of the bottoms was not performed in any pond.The soils that make up the bottom are not aquicludes, which contributes to intensive filtration ofmine waters and pollution of aquifers. Artificial ponds built without waterproofing of bottoms,rock dumps, mine water discharge routes and other sources of pollution are actively involved inthe zone of influence of mine drainage and worsen the quality of drinking water, the reserves ofwhich in the Western Donbass are limited. There is flooding and flooding by groundwater, as wellas increasing (compared to the period before the violations) areas of land temporarily floodedduring floods on rivers in the valleys of the rivers Samara, Velyka Ternivka and such large beamsas Svydovok, Taranova, Kosminna due to subsidence of the earth’s surface. Differences in theconditions of formation of mine waters determine the nature and degree of their impact on theenvironment. The main difficulties making complicated accurate comparison between calculatedand field data in Samara river floodplain are following: a) changes in parameters of mining andpumping rates of water used for local needs; b) hydrological changes including formation ofnew channels, bed deformation; c) transformation of the monitoring network; d) increasing leakagethrough the clayey bottom of the ponds. The main objective is to provide a comprehensivegeo-ecological assessment of the state of the Samara river floodplain in the area of coal miningin the Western Donbass. Multispectral imagery of Sentinel-2 satellite system was used for remoteassessment within the study area. Geomorphologic assessment of the studied area was performedusing Sentinel-1 satellite radar interferometry. Flooding of the territory is observed due to minedrainage and subsidence of the earth’s surface. The risk of salinization of soils under the conditionsof water use from the beam “Glynyana” and from the Samara river is estimated as insignificant,from the beam “Kosminna” ‒ average. The SAR value of mine waters in “Taranova” and“Svydovok” beams corresponds to a high level of salinity. Samara river waters belong to the 3rdclass and are characterized as highly mineralized, sometimes unsuitable for irrigation. Intensivenatural overgrowth of the mine dumps that have passed the stage of mining reclamation has beenrecorded near the “Heroyiv of Space”, “Pavlogradska” and “Samarska” mines. The rate of selfgrowthof the land cover around the mine “Ternovska” and “Blagodatna” is estimated as average.The self-healing levels of the “Ternovska” and “Blagodatna West Donbasska” mines are ratedfrom low to high. The greatest risk of salinization of soils under conditions of use of water forirrigation is possible at a fence from artificial ponds located in Taranov’s and Svidovok’s beams.The conturs of “Verbsky”, “Ternivsky”, “Bogdanovsky” and “Boguslavskiy” piscicultural pondscan be corrected with map of remote sensing of Samara river floodplain geomorphology. The dataobtained can be useful during development of econetwork of promising ecological corridors inthe floodplain part of the Samara River as well..