Deriving quantitative dust measurements related to iron ore handling from airborne hyperspectral data

Dust derived from mining and handling of ore has been identified as a major concern for the mining industry in Australia and may be critical to the future viability of some resource industries. Operational techniques to derive accurate measurements of anthropogenic dust on vegetation and infrastructure are necessary for the long-term management and monitoring of the environment surrounding mining operations. Airborne hyperspectral VNIR-SWIR systems can potentially provide these monitoring data. This paper outlines a method developed for deriving quantitative measurements of dust quantity on mangroves using remotely-sensed airborne hyperspectral data. The results show that it is possible to detect and quantitatively map iron oxide dust distribution using properly calibrated airborne visible to short wave infrared (VNIR-SWIR) data.