A COMPARISON OF SOIL QUALITY TO VEGETATION HEALTH IN THE COPPER BASIN MINING REGION UTILIZING SMALL-FORMAT AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHY

This study is a comparison of soil quality in the Tennessee Copper Basin mining region to levels of vegetation health. Soil samples were taken from the Cherokee National Forest, Ducktown Basin Museum and Copper Basin High School. Aerial photos were gathered to assess the health of vegetation in the area surrounding the Copper Basin High School. Collected soil samples were crushed into powder and then pressed into 40 mm diameter pellets. They were then chemically analyzed by X-Ray Florescence spectrometry. In addition, sample locations were located on various Landsat images from 1990 – 2015. For each soil sample location, the pixel value of the infrared band was recorded using ArcMap. The infrared reflectance of each sample location was then compared to the element concentrations in the soil samples. Results show that the concentration (ppm) levels for P, K, Fe, Si, Al are fairly stable across the eleven sample sites, but the concentrations (ppm) for Zn and Cu are not. The values for infrared reflectance also generally increase and stabilize from 1990 – 2015.