Measurement & Monitoring: 31st Quarterly Literature Update & Grant Survey

s: Joint Conference of 26th Annual American Society of Mining and Reclamation and 11th Billings Land Reclamation Symposium, May 30-June 5, 2009, Billings, MT. p 12, 2009 The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reviewed the costs and benefits of two different types of data gathering by generating cross sections of large land disturbances using Trimble Geo Explorer series GPS receiver units ranging from the submeter GeoXT with EVEREST(tm) multipath rejection technology to the GeoXH with Trimble H-Star(tm) and optional Zephyr(tm) external antenna capable of approximately 25 cm. vertical accuracy post processed. They then tested the suitability of LIDAR data for the same purposes and generated projected cost using that method on the same sites. By maintaining an accounting of the time associated with both methods, the agencies gained a better perspective on the costs and benefits of these technologies for future decisions. The project involved comparing pre, proposed and final graded slopes on 8 large surface mines in steep slopes in West Virginia as part of the review of approximate original contour requirements. The agencies found that use of remote sensing technologies, such as aerial