The Peace River Coal Block in B.C. extends a distance of 150 miles from the Williston reservoir to the Alberta border. Approximately seven hundred and fifty Coal Licences are involved, each one mile square. Activity occurs both within the Licences - roads, drill sites, trenches, adits; and outside (access via Chetwynd, Dawson Creek and Grande Prairie). This disturbance requires identification and inventorying in a systemized manner for purposes of bonding, approval of proposed work under Section 8 of the Coal Mines Regulation Act, for field inspection of work and reclamation, and for design of exploration and development protection and reclamation programs.
The scope and detail of the requirement can only satisfactorily be met through the use of aerial photography. The system developed has eight basic steps:
- Procurement of airphotos of suitable date and quality.
- Incorporation into an airphoto mosaic.
- Marking of boundaries of Coal Licences.
- Identification of nature of disturbance, referencing on an inventory sheet by Licence.
- Measurement of identified disturbed area by digitized planimeter.
- Presentation of individual licences and inventory sheets in field format.
- Field checking and discussions with company based on format.
- Summarization of critical data in computer program for future retrieval.