In order to eliminate the influence of remote sensing images from several days, scaled SMMI (S-SMMI) is constructed based on soil moisture monitoring index (SMMI) and scaled NDVI (S-NDVI). Based on S-SMMI, the reflectance of band3 and band4, derived from multi-temporal TM/ETM+/OLI and HJ-CCD images between 1989 and 2013, is applied to monitoring the spatio-temporal features of soil moisture in the Shendong mining area. The relationship between soil moisture, elevation and NDVI in the Shendong mining area are also evaluated. The results indicate that the soil moisture condition has been improved for twenty-five years and there is a positive relationship between soil moisture and the improvement of vegetation coverage. The distributions of soil moisture and NDVI are influenced by elevation. Soil moisture and NDVI, in the area with low elevation, are more sensitive to the change of elevation. Compared with the change of NDVI with soil moisture between 16% and 32%, NDVI is more sensitive to the change of soil moisture when it is less than 15%. Moreover, vegetation in low-lying area is more easily influenced by human activities.

remote sensing in mining area  /  soil moisture  /  scaled SMMI  /  Shendong mining area