Integrated approach of ecosystem services for mine reclamation in a clustered mining semi-urban region of South India

Abstract

Ecosystem service gets more attention among the environmental policy-makers in large-scale industries, especially in the mining industry. The service may direct or indirect benefit to people in various ways. The millennium ecosystem assessment typology is used to appraise the impact on ecosystems, and human well-being, and the ecosystem services are divided into four types as provisioning, regulating, supporting, and cultural services. We selected Ariyalur district of South India as a study area because of the clustered mining region. This study helps to trace the relationship between mining and ecosystem function. Though mining industry serves the provisioning of raw materials, the mining operations impose the negative impacts on environment of that region. The focus of the present study is to estimate the values of ecosystem service of Ariyalur district using benefit transfer method with reference to LULC change over the past 20 years from 2000 to 2020. To attain the proposed framework, the spatial distribution of geographic features of the study area was developed using geospatial tools. The study estimated the value of INR 83.29 billion of ecosystem services contributes to humans directly or indirectly in the year of 2020. In addition to this, the study determined the correlation function between ecosystem service values and LULC changes. The study suggested a measure to enhance the existing ecosystem services of the region in approach to land suitability analysis for mining site reclamation plan using entropy weight method.