Abstract
Artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) represents a significant
economic activity for communities in developing countries. In
south-eastern Senegal, this activity has increased in recent years and
has become the main source of income for the local population. However,
it is also associated with negative environmental and social impacts.
Considering the recent development of ASGM in Senegal, and the
difficulties of the government in monitoring and regulating this
activity, this article proposes a method for detecting and mapping ASGM
sites in Senegal using Sentinel 2 data and the Google Earth Engine. Two
artisanal mining site in Eastern Senegal are selected to develop and
test this approach. Detection and mapping are achieved using Principle
Component Analysis (PCA), Separability and Threshold (SEaTH) and Support
Vector Machine classifier (SVM). The results are validated by
ground-truth observations. The PCA indicates that the best period for
identifying artisanal mining sites against other types of land-use is
the end of dry season, when vegetation is minimal. This result is
confirmed by examining the spectral evolution over time of different
types of land-use. Input variables for SVM classification are defined by
the SEaTH. The classification results are presented as a map with 5
color-coded categories of land-use. The method can be used to map the
evolution of mining sites as a function of time using future Sentinel
acquisitions. This approach may also be extrapolated to other areas in
the Sahel where authorities are also confronted with the difficult
regulation of artisanal gold mining activities in remote areas.