Manganese ore, as an important strategic metal resource for the country, was subject to unreasonable mining practices and outdated smelting technologies in early China, leading to severe ecological damage in mining areas. This study examines the trends in vegetation cover change in the historical manganese mining areas of Yongzhou under the influence of policy, providing technical references for mitigating the ecological impact of these legacy mining areas and offering a basis for adjusting mine restoration policies. This paper takes the manganese mining area in Yongzhou City, Hunan Province as a case study and selects multiple periods of Landsat satellite images from 2000 to 2023. By calculating the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Fractional Vegetation Coverage (FVC), the spatiotemporal changes and driving factors of vegetation coverage in the Yongzhou manganese mining area from 2000 to 2023 were analyzed. The analysis results show that, in terms of time, from 2000 to 2012, the vegetation coverage in the manganese mining area decreased from 0.58 to 0.21, while from 2013 to 2023, it gradually recovered from 0.21 to 0.40. From a spatial perspective, in areas where artificial reclamation was conducted, the vegetation was mainly mildly and moderately degraded, while in areas where no artificial restoration was carried out, significant vegetation degradation was observed. Mining activities were the primary anthropogenic driving force behind the decrease in vegetation coverage, while effective ecological protection projects and proactive policy guidance were the main anthropogenic driving forces behind the increase in vegetation coverage in the mining area.

As an important coal-producing region in China, open-pit coal mining in Shaoyang, Hunan Province, has a significant impact on the ecological environment. This study focuses on the three major open-pit mining areas in the city, utilizing remote sensing data from 1998 to 2024. By calculating the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and fractional vegetation cover (FVC), and combining climate factors such as temperature and precipitation with Net Primary Productivity (NPP), this study analyzes the spatiotemporal evolution characteristics of vegetation cover and carbon sinks, and explores the impact of climate and environmental policies on vegetation recovery. The study employed trend analysis and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) model predictions, which showed that vegetation cover in the mining areas decreased overall from 1998 to 2011, gradually recovered after 2011, and reached a relatively high level by 2024. Changes in carbon sinks were consistent with the trends in vegetation cover. Spatially, the north mining area experienced the most severe vegetation degradation in the early stages, the middle area recovered earliest, and the south area had the fastest vegetation cover recovery rate. Climate factors had a certain influence on vegetation recovery, but precipitation, temperature, and FVC showed no significant correlation. The study indicates that vegetation recovery in mining areas is jointly influenced by mining intensity, climate conditions, and policy interventions, with geological environment management policies in Hunan mining areas playing a key role in promoting vegetation recovery.

Vegetation serves as a crucial indicator for monitoring ecosystems and plays a vital role. This paper employs remote sensing techniques to monitor vegetation in Taojiang County, aiming to explore the effects of ecological restoration projects on vegetation in mining areas. The study uses the Theil–Sen median slope and Mann–Kendall tests to analyze the trend of fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) changes in mining areas, the CASA model to estimate net primary productivity (NPP) in mining areas, and random forest models to assess the importance of influencing factors. Overall, FVC in the study area has slightly increased from 0.729 to 0.847. The FVC in mining areas reached its lowest point at 0.423 in 2011 and recovered to 0.718 in 2023 due to artificial restoration. From 2004 to 2011, FVC in mining areas showed an overall downward trend, while from 2013 to 2023, it showed an overall upward trend. The trend of NPP in mining areas is similar to that of FVC, with NPP being 939.8 g/m² y in 2004, 2011, and 2020, 788.3 g/m² y in 2011, and 855.7 g/m² y in 2020. Results from the random forest simulation indicate that the primary factor affecting FVC in mining areas is distance from roads, followed by elevation. This study finds that ecological restoration projects play a significant role in achieving ecological recovery and sustainable development in mining areas.