Lameck Azaria Stephano, Rotich Brian, Ahmed Abdalrahman, Kipkulei Harison, Mnyawi Silvester Raymond, Czimber Kornel
Doctoral School of Environmental Science, The Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Páter Károly U. 1, Gödöllő, 2100, Hungary.
Department of Earth Science, Mbeya University of Science and Technology, PO BOX 131, Mbeya, Tanzania.
Environ Monit Assess. 2025 Mar 25;197(4):464. doi: 10.1007/s10661-025-13921-x.
This study explored the land use and land cover (LULC) changes (1995-2023) in the gold mining hotspots of Mang'onyi, Sambaru, and Londoni in the Singida region of Tanzania. The study integrated remote sensing (RS) to evaluate the LULC transitions with social survey assessments (83 respondents) to determine the resident's perceptions of the environmental, social, and economic implications of mining bridging technical data with socio-economic realities. Supervised classification of Landsat images was conducted using the random forest (RF) classifier to generate LULC maps with five classes (bareland, agricultural land, forest, built-up, and shrubs and grasses), followed by an analysis to identify LULC change trends. The results showed an overall increase in agricultural land 168.51 km (587.55%), bareland 7.70 km (121.45%), and built-up areas 0.55 km (134.15%), while forest and shrubs and grasses areas declined by 97.67 km (- 72.59%) and 79.09 km (- 43.49%), respectively. A social survey assessment revealed residents perceived environmental (deforestation, biodiversity loss, land degradation, water, air, soil pollution), social (occupational hazards, land use conflicts, negative effects on livelihoods and culture, discrimination, child labor, community displacement), and economic (improved housing, infrastructural development, job creation, economy boost, improved access to services) impacts resulting from mining activities. Our findings underscore the importance of balancing the economic benefits of gold mining with the imperative to protect the environment and support sustainable livelihoods in the mining regions.
本研究探讨了坦桑尼亚辛吉达地区曼戈尼、桑巴鲁和伦敦尼金矿开采热点地区1995 - 2023年的土地利用和土地覆盖（LULC）变化。该研究整合了遥感（RS）技术来评估LULC转变，并通过社会调查评估（83名受访者）来确定居民对采矿活动在环境、社会和经济方面影响的看法，将技术数据与社会经济现实联系起来。使用随机森林（RF）分类器对陆地卫星图像进行监督分类，以生成包含五类（裸地、农业用地、森林、建成区以及灌木和草地）的LULC地图，随后进行分析以确定LULC变化趋势。结果显示，农业用地总体增加了168.51平方公里（587.55%），裸地增加了7.70平方公里（121.45%），建成区增加了0.55平方公里（134.15%），而森林以及灌木和草地面积分别减少了97.67平方公里（-72.59%）和79.09平方公里（-43.49%）。社会调查评估显示，居民认为采矿活动带来了环境影响（森林砍伐、生物多样性丧失、土地退化、水、空气、土壤污染）、社会影响（职业危害、土地使用冲突、对生计和文化的负面影响、歧视、童工、社区流离失所）以及经济影响（住房改善、基础设施发展、就业创造、经济增长、服务获取改善）。我们的研究结果强调了在金矿开采的经济效益与保护采矿地区环境和支持可持续生计的必要性之间取得平衡的重要性。
