Eco-geological Environment Assessment of Datong Basin Using Satellite Remote Sensing

Remote sensing is primary data source for eco-geological environment information extraction and assessment. In this paper, we extracted the eco-geological environment information of Datong Basin from Landsat5 TM images of 2010 and conducted the eco-geological environment assessment with the extracted eco-geological information and in-situ measurements. We firstly introduced the basic theoretical background and a specific approach for extracting the eco-geological environment information. Then this approach was used to extract the eco-geological environment information of Datong Basin. Finally, we presented the status of eco-geological environment for Datong Basin. Although the eco-geological environment quality of Datong Basin was improved as a whole, land salinization areas of some countries was enlarged, such as Shanyin and Yingxian counties. Industrial and colliery lands are distributed in the edge region of Datong Basin, which will bring potential disaster risks and inevitably impact the environmental quality of Datong Basin.