Workflow Narrative

Mine Reclamation Compliance Tracker

Problem It Solves

Are reclamation milestones being achieved spatially, and where are intervention priorities for compliance closure?

Who It Is For

Mine closure teams, compliance analysts, and environmental reporting operations.

Primary User

Mine operators, reclamation contractors, and regulatory compliance monitoring groups.

What It Does

Tracks vegetation recovery between baseline and current imagery.
Computes per-cell reclamation progress against target NDVI milestone.
Optionally evaluates slope stability milestone compliance.
Produces compliance-zone outputs and a contract-ready compliance summary.

How It Works

Extracts baseline/current red and NIR bands and computes per-date NDVI.
Computes recovery delta and normalized progress toward target NDVI threshold.
Optionally evaluates slope raster against maximum acceptable slope angle.
Assigns milestone statuses and an overall compliance grade summary.
Aggregates per-cell progress into compliance zones with pass/conditional/fail class attributes.
Indicative formula: progress ~= (NDVI_current - NDVI_baseline) / (NDVI_target - NDVI_baseline), clipped to [0,1].

Why It Wins

Integrates vegetation recovery, optional slope milestone evaluation, zone outputs, and compliance-grade contract reporting in one run.

Typical Buying Trigger

Regulatory milestone reporting cycles require reproducible evidence and zone-level compliance diagnostics.

Typical Presets

spectral-only for vegetation recovery milestone tracking.
full compliance mode with slope stability for stricter regulatory submissions.

Inputs

Parameter	Optional	Description
baseline_bundle, current_bundle	no	Baseline and current multiband rasters used for NDVI recovery analysis.
baseline_red_band_index, baseline_nir_band_index	yes	Baseline red/NIR band indices. Defaults: 0, 1.
current_red_band_index, current_nir_band_index	yes	Current red/NIR band indices. Defaults: 0, 1.
slope	yes	Optional slope raster (degrees) for stability milestone evaluation.
reclamation_target_ndvi	yes	Target NDVI threshold used for vegetation milestone scoring. Defaults to `0.35`.
slope_stability_max_deg	yes	Maximum acceptable slope for stability compliance. Defaults to `30.0`.
jurisdiction	yes	Compliance template: us_federal_mtbs, us_california_mining, us_pennsylvania_coal, aus_western_australia, canada_bc_mines, south_africa_dmre, none.
site_name	yes	Optional site name or permit identifier in contract outputs.
has_hydrology_evidence, has_soil_ph_evidence, has_perennial_vegetation_evidence	yes	Boolean evidence flags used by submission-readiness diagnostics.
report_interval_months	yes	Reported cadence in months (1-120) compared against template expectations.
zone_block_cells	yes	Pixel block size used for compliance-zone aggregation. Defaults to `20`.
output_prefix	yes	Prefix used to name output artifacts.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Description
ndvi_baseline	GeoTIFF	Baseline NDVI raster (`*_ndvi_baseline.tif`).
ndvi_current	GeoTIFF	Current NDVI raster (`*_ndvi_current.tif`).
vegetation_recovery	GeoTIFF	NDVI recovery delta raster (`*_vegetation_recovery.tif`).
reclamation_progress	GeoTIFF	Normalized progress-to-target raster (`*_reclamation_progress.tif`).
compliance_zones	GeoPackage	Zone-level compliance polygons with progress/recovery attributes (`*_compliance_zones.gpkg`).
compliance_contract	JSON	Machine-readable compliance summary contract (`*_compliance_contract.json`).
validation_diagnostics	JSON	Evidence completeness and warning diagnostics (`*_validation_diagnostics.json`).
html_report	HTML	Human-readable report generated from compliance contract outputs.

Python Example

import whitebox_workflows as wbw

wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

result = wbe.mine_site_reclamation_compliance_tracker(
    baseline_bundle="data/mine_baseline.tif",
    current_bundle="data/mine_current.tif",
    baseline_red_band_index=0,
    baseline_nir_band_index=1,
    current_red_band_index=0,
    current_nir_band_index=1,
    slope="data/slope.tif",
    reclamation_target_ndvi=0.35,
    slope_stability_max_deg=30.0,
    jurisdiction="canada_bc_mines",
    site_name="Mine Site Alpha",
    has_hydrology_evidence=True,
    has_soil_ph_evidence=True,
    has_perennial_vegetation_evidence=True,
    report_interval_months=12,
    zone_block_cells=20,
    output_prefix="output/reclamation",
)

print(result)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

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