Zoning of land reclamation in coal mining area and new progresses for the past 10 years

Abstract

Coal mining disturbed land is the main sources of land reclamation in China. With the rapid increase of economy and coal production, more and more land has been disturbed by construction and coal mining; thus, land reclamation has become highlights in the past 10 years, and China is boosting land reclamation in mining areas. Disturbance characteristics vary from region to region, according to natural and geological conditions, coal mining area land reclamation was divided into 3 zones, which are eastern, western and southern. Reclamation strategies are focused on prime farmland protection in eastern and ecological restoration in western and southern zones, respectively. Several innovative reclamation technologies and theories for the past 10 years were introduced in this paper, including concurrent mining and reclamation, Yellow river sediments backfilling, self-reclamation, and topsoil alternatives in opencast mines. Besides, in the government regulation and legal system building respect, several important laws and regulations were issued and implemented in the past 5 years, promoting land reclamation management and supervision greatly. Land reclamation is and will still be one of the most important parts of coal industry in the future, and more efforts and funds are expected to get involved.