Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Are Not Associated with Nighttime Light Emissions

Published inJ, vol. 2, p. 152-161
Publication date2019
Abstract

Maintaining records of artisanal and small-scale mining sites in developing countries requires considerable effort, so it would be beneficial if Earth observation data from space could assist in the identifying and monitoring of such sites. Artificial light emissions are common at industrial-scale mining sites and have been associated with small-scale illegal mining in some contexts. Here, we examine whether known artisanal and small-scale mining sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are associated with observations of night light emissions by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite Day/Night Band (DNB). Light emissions from the mining sites were not observed: the radiance observed from the sites was near zero and nearly identical to that observed for a set of randomly-chosen locations in the same region. While it is the case that DNB night lights' products provide useful data in other resource extraction contexts, they do not appear to be useful for identifying artisanal mining sites in the DRC.

Keywords
  • Artisanal mining
  • Democratic Republic of the Congo
  • Night lights
  • Remote sensing
  • VIIRS DNB
Citation (ISO format)
KYBA, Christopher et al. Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining Sites in the Democratic Republic of the Congo Are Not Associated with Nighttime Light Emissions. In: J, 2019, vol. 2, p. 152–161. doi: 10.3390/j2020013
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
Identifiers
Journal ISSN2571-8800
402views
198downloads

Technical informations

Creation20/04/2019 13:31:00
First validation20/04/2019 13:31:00
Update time15/03/2023 16:23:23
Status update15/03/2023 16:23:23
Last indexation31/10/2024 13:18:37
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack