Coal Seam Fire Area Determination Using Pixel Values of the Satellite Data

Abstract

A large amount of coal is locked up in coal seams worldwide, every year, due to uncontrolled coal seam fires (CSF). China and India are most affected due to these fires. Mapping an quantification of these fires requires the spectral characterisation of land use and land cover (LULC) from the satellite imagery. Remote sensing (RS) and Geographic information system (GIS) are useful tools for the assessment of the underground CSF. This paper reports the experiences obtained from the experiments on spectral band of satellite imageries in delineating the thermal regimes of CSF in a coalfield in India. The steps involved in the coal fire data analysis are preprocessing, processing and post processing. The data analyses have been carried out on the satellite data. The changes in LULC have been detected by visual interpretation, image differencing, band rationing and level slicing. The field observations were incorporated in analysis to identify the scope for further improvement in LULC simulations for the reliable modelling, delineation, mapping and monitoring of the CSF. The results obtained from the study depict that shallow depth workings, contiguous panel multi seam workings and the thick seam mining had created directly or indirectly very complex situations in thermal regimes of CSF. The province ratification of the CSF surveillance by LULC depicts that the propagation of the fire is higher in the lateral direction i:e in perpendicular direction of the fire heading.