Eco-geological environment quality assessment based on multi-source data of the mining city in red soil hilly region, China

High-intensity and large-scale resource development seriously threatens the fragile ecological environment in the red soil hilly region in southern China. This paper analyzes the eco-geological environmental problems and factors affecting Ganzhou, a mining city in the red soil hilly region, based on field survey and literature. The eco-geological environment quality (EGEQ) assessment system, which covered 11 indicators in physical geography, mining development, geological hazards, as well as water and soil pollution, was established through multi-source data utilization such as remote sensing images, DEM (Digital Elevation Model), field survey and on-site monitoring data. The comprehensive weight of each indicator was calculated through the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and entropy method. The eco-geological environment assessment map was developed by calculating the EGEQ value through the linear weighted method. The assessment results show that the EGEQ was classified into Ⅰ-Ⅴ grades from excellent to worse, among which, EGEQ of Ⅰ-Ⅱ accounted for 29.88%, EGEQ of Ⅲ accounted for 32.35% and EGEQ of Ⅳ-Ⅴ accounted for 37.77%; the overall EGEQ of Ganzhou was moderate. The assessment system utilized in this research provides scientific and accurate results, which in turn enable the proposal of some tangibleprotection suggestions.