Author(s): Barroso, Ana Raquel ; Henriques, Renato F. ; Cerqueira, Ângela ; Gomes, Patrícia ; Antunes, Isabel Margarida Horta Ribeiro ; Marinho Reis, A. Paula ; Valente, Teresa Maria Fernandes
Date: 2025
Persistent ID: https://hdl.handle.net/1822/97376
Origin: RepositóriUM - Universidade do Minho
[Excerpt] In the past decade, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones, have become invaluable tools in the mining industry, supporting applications ranging from mineral exploration to environmental remediation. When equipped with high resolution image sensors, UAVs enable high spatial and temporal resolution surveying, making them particularly effective for monitoring abandoned mining sites. This paper presents a case study demonstrating the application of UAV technology for monitoring an abandoned mining site affected by acid mine drainage (the Trimpancho mining complex in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, southwestern Spain). The study was conducted on two selected waste dumps: one at the upstream and the other at the downstream of the mining complex. The primary objective was to estimate the volume of waste material accumulated in these areas. To achieve this, a DJI Phantom 4 RTK UAV was employed to conduct comprehensive aerial surveys of the sites. The imagery collected enabled the generation of orthophotomaps and digital surface models (DSMs), which provided detailed spatial information for accurately delimiting waste accumulations and identifying dominant runoff zones contributing to the degradation of the Trimpancho stream. [...]
