Assessment of the success of canopy cover revegetation of former coal mine lands with Forest Canopy Density (FCD) Model in Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan

Abstract

Coal mining plays a vital role in Indonesia's economic growth. However, these activities negatively impact the environment. To minimize this, the Indonesian government requires ex-mining land to be reclaimed, with one of the success criteria being canopy cover. Until now, there has been no measurable method that can determine the success rate of canopy cover on reclaimed land. This research was conducted to develop a measurement method based on remote sensing data using the Forest Canopy Density (FCD) Model, which is applied in Company X, Kutai Kertanegara. The FCD Model consisted of four biophysical indices, including AVI, BSI, SI, and TI, obtained from Landsat 8 OLI TIRS imagery from 2013–2021. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov normality test was performed before testing the relationship between FCD values and canopy cover using linear regression to obtain the canopy cover success value based on the FCD value. The FCD showed an increasing trend yearly, especially in the first two years after planting. Regression analysis showed a strong relationship between FCD values and canopy cover values, with R2=0.775, and revealed that 75.35 is the FCD value threshold for a successful canopy cover in the reclamation area. This study shows that the FCD approach can be applied to determine the success rate of reclamation in post-mining areas.

Keywords

• coal
• forest canopy density
• mine reclamation
• remote sensing