Computer modeling and integrated evaluation of vegetation contamination with heavy metals on tailings dam surfaces after reclamation

Reclaimed tailings dams of the mining and processing industry remain the secondary pollution sources for a long time. Conventional monitoring never integrates the obtained data into spatial models and neglects differentiated toxicological hazard of heavy metals. For the computer modeling purposes, a geoinformation dashboard was designed in Yandex DataLens for the computerized analysis of a modified Weighted Biotic Index (BIw) using the monitoring data of vegetation at the Unaly Tailings Dam (56 points, 6 types of metals). The methodology includes normalization of concentrations by the maximum allowable concentration, introduction of weighting factors (w=3 for hazard class I—Cd, Pb, Zn; w=2 for hazard class II—Ni, Cu; w=1 for hazard class III—Mn), and computation of BIw in terms of the calculated field in cloud GIS. The values of BIw range from 8.5 to 109.0 (average 36.15), which confirms high spatial nonuniformity of contamination. At the points with the maximal value of BIw, heavy metals of class I dominate, which is reflective of vertical migration of pollutants. As against the classic BI, the proposed modified index adequately reflects contribution of extremely hazardous elements and can provide a ground for the creation of digital twins of tailings dams in decision support systems. 

Puchkova T. V., Rogozov Yu. I., Plakhotin D. A., Lukyanov A. S., Sokolov A. A. Computer modeling and integrated evaluation of vegetation contamination with heavy metals on tailings dam surfaces after reclamation. MIAB. Mining Inf. Anal. Bull. 2026;(8):92-103. [In Russ]. DOI: 10.25018/0236_1493_2026_8_0_92.

The studies were carried out at the Southern Federal University and were supported by the Russian Science Foundation, Projects Nos. RNF/23-37-GL and 23-77-00015.

T.V. Puchkova¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Assistant Professor, e-mail: tpuchkova@sfedu.ru, ORCID ID: 0009-0003-0200-1250,
Y.I. Rogozov, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Professor, Head of Chair, ICTIS Branch of Southern Federal University Taganrog, Taganrog, Russia, e-mail: yrogozov@sfedu.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-9125-7826,
D.A. Plakhotin¹, Assistant, e-mail: plakhotin@sfedu.ru, ORCID ID: 0009-0005-5329-6903,
A.S. Lukyanov, Student, Open University of Economics, Management and Law, Moscow, Russia, e-mail: alexandr.luckjanov@yandex.ru, ORCID ID: 0009-0005-5123-7344,
A.A. Sokolov¹, Cand. Sci. (Eng.), Assistant Professor, Head of Chair, e-mail: anso@sfedu.ru, ORCID ID: 0000-0002-1127-9612,
¹ Branch of Southern Federal University in Gelendzhik, Gelendzhik, Russia.

A.A. Sokolov, e-mail: anso@sfedu.ru.

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