article · Resources
Mining expansion and infrastructure development in southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo are driving major changes in miombo woodlands. An analysis of satellite observations from 1998 to 2023 in Mutshatsha Territory evaluated forest cover and fragmentation around a mining exploration road and four rural settlements. Over this 25-year period, forest cover declined from 39.9 percent to 12.5 percent, representing an annual loss rate of 2.75 percent. Simultaneously, agricultural lands and built-up or bare-soil areas expanded. Remaining forests became increasingly fragmented, showing smaller patch sizes and diminished cohesion. Forest cover increased with distance from the mining road and settlements, indicating strong accessibility-associated spatial gradients. These spatial patterns highlight how mining infrastructure and settlements reorganise regional landscapes, demonstrating the necessity of integrating accessibility patterns into conservation and land-use planning beyond direct industrial footprints.
As mining activities expand across Katangese Copperbelt ecosystems, understanding how secondary infrastructure drives environmental degradation is critical. This research reveals that woodland loss extends far beyond direct operational sites, following accessibility corridors created by roads and settlements. Environmental managers and policymakers can use these insights to design land-use strategies that protect remaining forest patches and maintain landscape connectivity.
The research provides an applied spatial analysis framework relevant to land-use planners, conservation bodies, and mining operators undertaking environmental impact assessments. By quantifying the spatial footprint of infrastructure, the approach can inform regional zoning and mitigation programmes. The work represents applied research that could be integrated into spatial planning toolkits and environmental monitoring protocols for active resource extraction zones.
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The miombo woodlands of the southeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) are increasingly exposed to mining expansion and associated land-use changes. However, the spatial association between mining infrastructure, rural settlements, and forest-cover dynamics remains poorly quantified. This study assessed long-term forest-cover change and fragmentation in relation to accessibility gradients around a mining exploration road and four rural settlements in Mutshatsha Territory, a rapidly transforming mining frontier within the Katangese Copperbelt. Land-cover dynamics from 1998 to 2023 were reconstructed from six Landsat observations using Random Forest classification implemented in Google Earth Engine. Landscape metrics were used to quantify changes in forest composition and configuration, while distance-based analyses assessed spatial patterns along accessibility gradients. Forest cover declined from 39.9% in 1998 to 12.5% in 2023, corresponding to an annual forest-cover loss rate of 2.75%, while agricultural and built-up/bare-soil classes expanded. Forest fragmentation increased, as reflected by greater patch subdivision and declining dominance and cohesion of large forest patches. Forest cover generally increased with distance from the mining road after accounting for year, indicating a significant accessibility-associated spatial gradient. Linear regressions showed strong statistical associations between forest cover and road-distance gradients (R2 = 0.71–0.94), while village-distance relationships reached R2 values of up to 0.80. These R2 values represent the proportion of variance accounted for by the fitted spatial relationships and should not be interpreted as causal effects of accessibility. Forest-cover patterns also varied among villages and years, indicating that accessibility-associated gradients occurred within broader temporal and landscape dynamics. Overall, the results demonstrate substantial forest-cover loss and landscape reorganization associated spatially with accessibility gradients around mining infrastructure and rural settlements. These findings support conservation and land-use planning that considers remaining forest patches, landscape connectivity, and accessibility patterns beyond the immediate infrastructure footprint.
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DOI: 10.3390/resources15080109
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