GPS/terrestrial 3D laser scanner combined monitoring technology for coal mining subsidence: a case study of a coal mining area in Hebei, China

Abstract

In order to overcome the shortage that point-based data acquisition techniques cannot retrieve the whole basin subsidence caused by underground mining, and to avoid complex splicing of terrestrial 3D laser scanner (TLS) point cloud data and the errors caused by such splicing, GPS/TLS combined technology is employed for mining subsidence monitoring. The basic idea of the monitoring technology is put forward. In this article, an application of the method to a coal mining area in China is presented. Support vector machine (SVM) model for GPS level conversion in the mining area is established, and a comparative analysis of SVM, BP neural network and polynomial established local quasi-geoid in the mining area is conducted. Ground surface digital elevation model (DEM) of the mining area is established by using TLS point cloud data, and the ground surface dynamic subsidence basin is obtained through a subtraction of two DEMs. The results indicate that the quasi-geoid established by using SVM model features a relatively high level of stability and accuracy and that the established mining surface DEM and subsidence basin can provide the fundamental data for the reconstruction of ecological environment in the mining area. GPS/TLS combined monitoring technology is a new monitoring technology, which entangles the advantages of both GPS and TLS and could offset their disadvantages, thus obtaining complementary advantages. According to analysis on its application in the mining area, we conclude that the technology is feasible and has a great application prospect for the mining area purposes.