Dataset for "An Open-Pit Coal Mine–Oriented Improved Remote Sensing Ecological Index (OC-iRSEI): Theory, Implementation, and Performance Evaluation"

This dataset supports the study entitled “An Open-Pit Coal Mine–Oriented Improved Remote Sensing Ecological Index (OC-iRSEI): Theory, Implementation, and Performance Evaluation”. It contains the derived ecological index data generated for seven representative open-pit coal mines in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, for the period 2015–2024. The dataset was produced using Landsat 8 Collection 2 Level-2 imagery accessed through the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Annual median composites were generated to reduce the effects of clouds and cloud shadows. Based on these composites, five indicators were calculated, including the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Tasseled Cap Wetness (WET), Difference Index (DI), Normalized Difference Built-up and Soil Index (NDBSI), and Land Surface Temperature (LST). After min–max normalization, principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to derive the open-pit coal mine–oriented improved Remote Sensing Ecological Index (OC-iRSEI). The dataset includes the derived OC-iRSEI results and related indicator outputs used in the analysis. It is intended to support reproducibility of the study and may be useful for ecological assessment, degraded-patch identification, restoration monitoring, and comparative analysis of mining environments in arid and semiarid regions. The study areas include Qinghua Mine, Yitai Mine, Jiangjunmiao Mine, Xiheishan Mine, Wucaiwan Mine, Nanhu No. 2 Mine, and Nanhu No. 7 Mine in Xinjiang, China. The original remote sensing data are publicly available from the Google Earth Engine Data Catalog based on the USGS Landsat 8 Collection 2 Level-2 dataset. This Zenodo record archives the derived dataset generated in this study.