Land-use/Cover Mapping and Change Detection in the Rustenburg Mining Region using Landsat Images

Several decades of intensive mining have taken place in the Rustenburg region, located in the North West Province of South Africa. The platinum boom of the late 90s has seen new surface and underground operations opening up in this area. To assess land-use/cover and environmental impacts, remotely sensed data in the form of Landsat images were analysed. The post-classification change detection method was used to detect land-use/cover changes in the various images. Landsat ETM+ 2002 was used as the reference image. Significant and extensive changes in the land-use/cover patterns occurred in the last three decades: vegetation has undergone a general decrease, and woodland and grassland have been changed to cultivated land. Open mining areas increased due to expansion of mining activities. High urban expansion due to influx of job seekers has lead to an increase in the built up area, formal and informal. Consequently, the landscape became highly disturbed due to increased mining, agriculture and urban development.