PROCEEDINGS
JOINT CONVENTION MALANG 2017, HAGI – IAGI – IAFMI- IATMI (JCM 2017)
Ijen Suites Hotel, Malang, September 25 – 28, 2017
Vegetaion Monitoring on Reclamation Area using Remote Sensing Technology
Udhi C. Nugroho 1
Bambang Trisakti 1
1
Remote Sensing Applications Center, LAPAN.
Abstract
Indonesia has big potential of energy and minerals. The
mining industry contributes about 11.2% of Indonesia's
export value and about 2.8% to gross domestic product
(GDP). But on the environmental side, mining is considered
the most destructive compared to other natural resource
exploitation activities, so the reclamation needs to be done.
The aim of this research was to conduct rapid monitoring of
vegetation in the reclamation area using multitemporal
Landsat satellite data. The method used is to compare the
vegetation index value in the data before with the data after.
The vegetation index used are EVI (Enhanched Vegetaion
Index) to determine the development of plant canopy and
NDVI (Natural Difference Vegetation Index) to predict plant
health. This research shows that remote sensing is very
effective and efficient for rapid monitoring in large area
reclamation and can be done multitemporal. Deficiency in
using remote sensing is the cloud cover on the reclamation
area, so no data obtained at this location.
Introduction
Based on Bappenas study at 2003, Indonesia has big
potential of energy and minerals. The mining industry
contributes about 11.2% of Indonesia's export value and
about 2.8% to gross domestic product (GDP). Mineral and
coal materials are natural resources that can be utilized as
country income for national development. In mining
activities is done by way of forest clearing, stripping of soil
layers, dredging and stockpiling. Such activities can be
reliably damaged. In other way, mining activities
significantly cause environmental damage (Setiadi, 2005).
To reduce the environmental impact, reclamation needs to
be done. Reclamation is an activity to prepare the post
mining land or open land that will be reused after post
mining. One of the objectives is to replace the disturbed land
with the ultimate goal of the reclamation plan that is to assure
the post mining land back to productive landuse
(Kartosudjono, 1994). One of reclamation activities is
revegetation on post mining land.
The location of the reclamation area is usually located in an
area that is difficult to reach, so it can be difficult in the
supervision activities by government or monitoring activites
by mining company. If this done by directly field survey, it
will need a more time for rapid mapping, and quite
expensive for width reclamation area . Therefore, remote
sensing technology can participate in rapid monitoring with
the excess can reach width area, continuously monitoring, so
it can complement the data from field survey. One of the
satellite images that can be used for monitoring vegetation
in the reclamation area is the Landsat 8 satellite which can
be obtained free of charge. The purpose of this study is to
conduct rapid monitoring of vegetation in the reclamation
area using Landsat 8 satellite imagery.
Data and Method
The data used are Landsat 8 multi temporal data from 2013
to 2017. Landsat 8 images are selected only free of clouds in
the reclamation area. Landsat 8 has a spatial resolution of 30
meter for multispectral band and 15 meter for panchromatic
band, while its temporal resolution is 16 days (USGS, 2013).
The method used is to compare the values of NDVI (Natural
Difference Vegetation Index) from Landsat 8 images from
2013 to 2017 to predict the health condition of vegetation
and compare the value of EVI (Enhanched Vegetaion Index)
from Landsat 8 image from 2013 to 2017 to determine the
development of vegetation canopy.
NDVI is a mathematical combination between red band and
NIR band that has long been used as an indicator of the
existence and condition of vegetation (Lillesand and Kiefer
1997). NDVI is the most popular vegetation index used and
can describe the greeness, health and vegetation density
(Trisakti et al., 2014). NDVI is an index to calculate how
much absorption of solar radiation by plants, especially the
leaf (Rushayati et al., 2011). Healthy vegetation have a high
level of vegetation index, this is due to the inverse
relationship between the intensity of the reflectance by the
vegetation in the red light spectrum and the near infrared
(NIR) (Purwadhi and Sri, 2001). NDVI equation is below:
𝜌𝑁𝐼𝑅− 𝜌𝑅𝑒𝑑
NDVI =
𝜌𝑁𝐼𝑅+𝜌𝑅𝑒𝑑
where 𝜌 is reflectance number of those band.
Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) is a method in
determining the level of greenness and biomass which has
been developed to optimize the better signal sensitivity
vegetation in areas of high biomass. EVI is more responsive
to variations in the canopy structure determination,
including the Leaf Area Index (LAI), canopy type,
physiognomy plant and canopy architecture (Hafiz et
al.,2013). The equation used to calculate EVI is as follows
(Huete et al., 1997):
PROCEEDINGS
JOINT CONVENTION MALANG 2017, HAGI – IAGI – IAFMI- IATMI (JCM 2017)
Ijen Suites Hotel, Malang, September 25 – 28, 2017
𝜌𝑁𝐼𝑅− 𝜌𝑅𝑒𝑑
EVI =
𝜌𝑁𝐼𝑅+(𝐶1 𝑥 𝜌𝑅𝑒𝑑+𝐶2 𝑥 𝜌𝐵𝑙𝑢𝑒)+𝐿
where ρ is the reflectance value. To be resistant to
atmospheric distortion, EVI uses blue light channel
information. C1 and C2 variable in the equation above is the
weighting factor to overcome aerosol, while the variable L
is a calibration factor the effect of the canopy and the ground,
while G is a scaling factor in order to make EVI values are
in the range -1 to 1.
Result and Discussion
In this study Landsat 8 image is used because it has a canal
that can be used to determine the vegetation index and the
time used to re-capture in the same area is only 16 days,
besides that Landsat image can be obtained free of charge.
To identify the reclamation area can be done by comparing
the value of NDVI in the year before reclamation with after
reclamation. NDVI values of vegetated area is higher than
NDVI of bare area. So when there is a change of NDVI value
from low to high value then there is a change of land cover
from bare area to vegetated land. Based on these differences
can be identified areas that have been done reclamation.
Based on NDVI data analysis in 2009 and 2013 (Figure 1),
obtained predicted reclamation area that is classified based
on location into three area, they are A, B, and C. This
grouping to make it easier to monitoring the development of
vegetation conditions. The estimation data of the
reclamation area can be the preliminary data for the
government in conducting supervision of mining company
reclamation guarantees.

Figure 1. A) Landsat 5 image at 2009 b) Landsat 8 image at 2013. c) Yellow color is difference value of NDVI between
NDVI at 2009 and NDVI at 2013 overlaid with Landsat 8 image at 2013. Yellow color shown predicted reclamation area
that is classified become three area, A,B,C.
PROCEEDINGS
JOINT CONVENTION MALANG 2017, HAGI – IAGI – IAFMI- IATMI (JCM 2017)
Ijen Suites Hotel, Malang, September 25 – 28, 2017

In addition to identifying the reclamation area, NDVI can be
used to determine plant health in the reclamation area.
Normally, the plant with green chlorophyll, its NDVI value
will be higher along with increasing the age of the plant and
will become stagnant at the certain age. To determine the
development of plant health conditions, the mean value of
NDVI in each predicted reclamation area is compared from
2013 to 2017. Based on figure 2 it can be seen that the
development of NDVI values from 2013 to 2017 increased
with different intervals of increase between years in each
area. This shows that the development of the plant goes well.

NDVI Value 2013 - 2017

0,7
0,65
0,6
0,55
0,5
0,45
0,4
0,35
0,3
0,25
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017

A B C

Figure 2. NDVI value for each predicted reclamation area from 2013 to
2017

Figure 3. EVI value for each predicted reclamaion area from 2013 to 2017

To see the development of plant canopy cover in the
reclamation area then the comparison of EVI value from
2013 to 2017. The more tight the canopy cover the EVI value
in the area will be higher. Based on figure 3 we can see that
the value of EVI increases from 2013 to 2017. The
difference between NDVI and EVI in each predicted
reclamation area is due to differences in plant species or
plant age.
This method is quite effective and efficient to applicate.
With preliminary data obtained from this method can reduce
the time and cost used for field surveys. Field measurements
can be made only at certain points that require field data.
Data generated from this method only takes less than 1 hour
in the process of using a computer with a minimum
processor of Intel i5 and RAM (Random access memory) 4
GB. The higher the computer specification, the less time
used.
PROCEEDINGS
JOINT CONVENTION MALANG 2017, HAGI – IAGI – IAFMI- IATMI (JCM 2017)
Ijen Suites Hotel, Malang, September 25 – 28, 2017
To be able to see the value of NDVI and EVI more detailed
this methode required a satellite image with higher spatial
resolution such as SPOT - 6/7, World View, Geoeye,
Pleiades. This high spatial resolution image can not be
obtained for free. Optical satellite imagery limited by cloud
cover, we can not obtained data on object area that is cloud
covered. To apply this method, it is necessary to set a defined
reclamation boundary and classified by plant age to reduce
the biased of the data.
Conclusions
The conclusion is that Landsat 8 satellite imagery can be
used for rapid monitoring of vegetation in the reclamation
area. The results of NDVI and EVI in the predicted
reclamation area show that the condition of vegetation
quality from 2013 to 2017 is good. To improve the quality
of data obtained it is necessary to use satellite imagery with
higher spatial resolution. To apply this method, it is
necessary to set a defined reclamation boundary and
classified by plant age to reduce the biased of the data.
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Acknowledgements
This research was supported by Remote Sensing
Applications Center – LAPAN and Remote Sensing Data
and Technology Center – LAPAN.