Prediction analysis model for groundwater potential based on set pair analysis of a confined aquifer overlying a mining area

Abstract

One important prerequisite for mine water inrush prevention and water inflow control in a coal mine is groundwater potential mapping. In this study, a synthetical method was developed to evaluate the groundwater potential of a confined aquifer overlying a mining area using the improved set pair analysis (ISPA) theory. Considering the influence of the hydrogeological and geological conditions, the characteristics of rock stratum and geological tectonics were used as the two major aspects to evaluate groundwater potential. The degree of connection was determined by the relationship between the total number of element characteristics and the number of identical, contradictory, and discrepant terms. The weight of evaluation indices was calculated based on information entropy, and the grade of groundwater potential was determined by the improved evaluation criterion of set pair analysis. To validate the practicality of the method, a case study at Hongliu coal mine was carried out. An entropy-set pair analysis-cosine model was constructed and five evaluation indices were selected: sandstone thickness, flushing fluid consumption, core recovery, fault fractal dimension, and fold fractal dimension. The groundwater potential of the study area was classified into four levels. The quantitative results were validated with data from field observations and compared with the results of geographic information systems (GIS), which were found to be in very good agreement.