Abstract
In the paper, special attention is paid to the sources that lead to soil and land degradation in Valea Jiului, as these are the components of the environment that are most affected by mining activities. Three sources of pollution are analyzed: dumps, mine yards and constructions, and mining and preparation activities chemically polluting of soil. Among the environmental changes, land degradation currently has the most important consequences for human settlements and economic activities, especially through induced subsidence processes and the presence of dumps with reduced stability. The authors of the article propose their own method for establishing a Global Land Degradation Index (GLDI) affected by mining activities in a mining perimeter (mine) taking into account the entire analyzed area (in our case Valea Jiului) and make a classification (in three classes) of this index.