Airborne remote sensing has been used at Highland Valley Copper since 2001 as part of the reclamation program to provide annual high spatial resolution maps of vegetation cover. These maps cover the entire mine site and complement the vegetative assessments. This unique and growing dataset allows us to examine vegetation changes over time with spatial resolution of about 3 m. We can now classify the entire mine site according to its vegetation history and whether or not it has reached and maintained biomass above 1,500 kg/ha, which is the permit threshold for self-sustaining status. The resulting 'reclamation status maps' provide a detailed synopsis of the vegetation trends between 2001 and 2010. They are designed to be helpful to reclamation managers and provide a means to focus further remediation effort on specific locations most needing it, rather than having to make wholesale changes to entire sites.
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