Sustainable Development Of Mining Area Research Articles

Resource and environmental carrying capacity study of Kubai Coalfield in Xinjiang based on RS and GIS

The study of resource and environmental carrying capacity (RECC) is critical to the ecological environmental protection and sustainable development of mining areas. Using multi-source remote sensing data such as Landsat5 and Landsat8, as well as socioeconomic statistics, the impact mechanism of the Kubai Coalfield's RECC was analyzed using the theory of Driving-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR), and a three-level evaluation index system of 1-5-18 was proposed. The cloud model enhanced Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to estimate the weight value of each assessment index. The Kubai Coalfield's RECC was calculated by superimposing the weights of different variables, and the contributing elements and changing trends of the RECC were investigated. The RECC of the Kubai Coalfield is highest in the east, second highest in the west, and lowest in the center, according to the results. The vegetation cover of the mining area has a direct impact on the RECC, and mining activity is the primary cause of the change in carrying capacity; however, coal mining has a lagging effect on the RECC. The study's findings serve as a guide for the quantitative assessment of RECC of Xinjiang's environmentally vulnerable mining sites and offer theoretical justification for the approach taken in the study of RECC of mining areas and the preservation of ecological environment sources.

Standardized framework for assessing soil quality at antimony smelting site by considering microbial-induced resilience and heavy metal contamination

Antimony smelting activities damage the soil and vegetation surroundings while generating economic value. However, no standardized methods are available to diagnose the extent of soil degradation at antimony smelting sites. This study developed a standardized framework for assessing soil quality by considering microbial-induced resilience and heavy metal contamination at Xikuangshan antimony smelting site. The soil resilience index (SRI) and soil contamination index (SCI) were calculated by Minimum Data Set and geo-accumulation model, respectively. After standardized by a multi-criteria quantitative procedure of modified Nemerow's pollution index (NPI), the integrated assessment of soil quality index (SQI), which is the minimum of SRINPI and SCINPI, was achieved. The results showed that Sb and As were the prominent metal(loid) pollutants, and significant correlations between SQI and SRI indicated that the poor soil quality was mainly caused by the low level of soil resilience. The primary limiting factors of SRI were Fungi in high and middle contaminated areas, and Skermanella in low contaminated area, suggesting that the weak soil resilience was caused by low specific microbial abundances. Microbial regulation and phytoremediation are greatly required to improve the soil quality at antimony smelting sites from the perspectives of pollution control and resilience improvement. This study improves our understanding of ecological effects of antimony smelting sites and provides a theoretical basis for ecological restoration and sustainable development of mining areas.

The predictive and search system of amber (PSSA) and sustainable development of mining areas

A new (“amber”) branch of the economy is currently developing in Ukraine, which includes the search for, mining and processing of amber. Ukrainian amber is noted for its high quality and is one of the most competitive types of domestic coloured stones on world markets. A significant part of the territory of Ukraine is promising for the discovery of placer deposits of amber, but their industrial development is currently carried out only within the boundaries of “the Pripyat amber-bearing basin” (PAB), which covers the regions of Volyn, Rivne, Zhytomyr, and Kyiv regions. The development of the “amber” industry of Ukraine caused problems of a production, organizational, socio-economic and environmental nature. They significantly influence the socio-economic development of amber mining areas. These are: 1) lack of a national program for the development of the “amber” industry; 2) its insufficient level compared to the real potential; 3) uncontrolled mining of amber; 4) negative impact on the ecology of the natural environment; 5) socio-economic consequences for the population of amber mining areas. “The predictive and search system for amber” (PSSA) allows solving these problems in a complex manner. The PSSA of Ukraine allows systematic research of “the amber-bearing formation” (AF) developed on its territory. PSSA uses scientific ideas about the origin of amber and the main natural factors of its formation, develops methods and a specific research algorithm. The main goal of PSSA is to identify “amber-bearing objects” (AO) in the geological body of the AF, which may contain high concentrations of amber, the so-called “traps”.

A brief review paper on mining subsidence and its geo-environmental impact

For the past several decades subsidence has had a significant effect on the mining industry. Majority of the mining subsidence shows in the coal mines. Remote sensing and GIS has been one of the major tools for the estimation and determining the subsidence. Mining subsidence lead us to roof collapse, infrastructure loss and loss of life is a huge concern. Native vegetation and underground water was effected by the mining subsidence. It severely hinders the sustainable development of mining areas, depletes natural resources, and causes a number of ecological and environmental challenges that have a negative influence on social and economic conditions. Subsidence in mines entails in vertical and horizontal movement of ground and it forms in cracks, troughs or sag and sinkhole subsidence. This paper provides a comparative discussion of various techniques employed for assessing mining-induced subsidence and its effects on the surrounding environment. The research community has employed eight major methods as identified in this study's concluding remarks. Over the past two decades, significant progress has been achieved, enabling the implementation of advanced approaches such as remote sensing and GIS, LiDAR, and DiNSAR to detect land subsidence.

Study on the Restoration and Control of Yulin Landscape, Forest, Field, Lake and Grass System

Yulin city is a national high-end energy and chemical industry base. After more than 40 years of development of coal mining area, the geological disasters and ecological environment damage caused by the original coal mine goaf have become the urgent ecological environment problems that perplex the sustainable development of Yulin city. The traditional ecological governance mode of mining area, with high governance cost, large implementation resistance and poor ecological benefits, can not meet the requirements of Yulin mining area With the new requirements of ecological environment and economic development, it is urgent to explore a new model of ecological governance in mining areas. On the basis of ecological restoration in mining area, this paper puts forward the development mode of ecological restoration and multi industry integration in mining area, and analyzes it based on SWOT model, in order to provide a practical way for the sustainable development of mining area in Yulin City, so as to make sustainable use of resources and sustainable development of ecological environment.

The Synergistic Effect of Topographic Factors and Vegetation Indices on the Underground Coal Mine Utilizing Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Remote Sensing.

Understanding the synergistic effect between topography and vegetation in the underground coal mine is of great significance for the ecological restoration and sustainable development of mining areas. This paper took advantage of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) remote sensing to obtain high-precision topographic factors (i.e., digital elevation model (DEM), slope, and aspect) in the Shangwan Coal Mine. Then, a normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was calculated utilizing Landsat images from 2017 to 2021, and the NDVI with the same spatial resolution as the slope and aspect was acquired by down-sampling. Finally, the synergistic effect of topography and vegetation in the underground mining area was revealed by dividing the topography obtained using high-precision data into 21 types. The results show that: (1) the vegetation cover was dominated by "slightly low-VC", "medium-VC", and "slightly high-VC" in the study area, and there was a positive correlation between the slope and NDVI when the slope was more than 5°. (2) When the slope was slight, the aspect had less influence on the vegetation growth. When the slope was larger, the influence of the aspect increased in the study area. (3) "Rapidly steep-semi-sunny slope" was the most suitable combination for the vegetation growth in the study area. This paper revealed the relationship between the topography and vegetation. In addition, it provided a scientific and effective foundation for decision-making of ecological restoration in the underground coal mine.

Research Progress of Land Reclamation in Mining Areas in China

The ecological environment of mining area is an important problem that affects the sustainable development of mining area and regional ecological security. The mining industry has promoted the global economic development, but also caused a series of ecological degradation. Ecological restoration of mining areas has become an urgent problem for all countries in the world. This paper expounds the research technology and development trend of ecological restoration in mining areas in China, and looks forward to the ecological restoration in mining areas in the future, which will provide reference for the ecological restoration of mining land reclamation in the future.

Coupling and coordination of coal mining intensity and social-ecological resilience in China

Coal is an important global energy resource. However, the negative impacts of mining are important factors restricting the sustainable development of mining areas. Under the superimposed influences of different mining intensities, different natural ground conditions, and social-economic development, there are large differences in the restoration characteristics and response strategies for mining. To guide the development and utilization of coal resources and ecological restoration, the spatial distribution should be appropriately analyzed at the macroscale. Based on the web-crawler technology and multi-source remote sensing data, this paper attempted to estimate the mining intensity and the social-ecological resilience respectively at the county level, to divide the mining areas into nine regions in China. Based on the zoning results, differentiated strategies were proposed for ecological restoration and resource development and utilization in the various coal mining regions. The valuation results suggested that coal mines are widely distributed and abundant in China, mainly concentrated in the central, southwest and northwest regions. However, nearly half of the coal mining regions are with low resilience. Especially, high mining intensity-low resilience areas are concentrated in north China which account for 10.83%. These areas should receive special attention to prevent possible ecological risks and minimize economic effects. Social-ecological resilience measures system adaptation to coal mining disturbances, which can be regarded as the standard of mining intensity adjustment. In the future, local governments can try to combine ecological restoration and resource development strategies to provide support for the sustainable development of coal mining areas in China.

Characteristics and Environmental Response of White Secondary Mineral Precipitate in the Acid Mine Drainage From Jinduicheng Mine, Shaanxi, China

The study focuses on the white secondary mineral precipitate and its environmental response formed in acid mine drainage (AMD) at Jinduicheng Mine (Shaanxi, China). The mineral composition of white precipitate was characterized by Scanning electron microscopy-energy dispersive spectrometer (SEM-EDS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES), chemical quantitative calculation and PHREEQC software. The white precipitate was a kind of amorphous crystal with the characteristics of a fine powder, and its main elements were O, Al, S, F, OH- and SO42- groups. Moreover, by comparing the mole number of chemical elements, the main mineral composition of the white precipitate was closest to basaluminite. The geochemical simulation result of the PHREEQC software verified that the white precipitate was basaluminite. According to the analysis of water quality characteristics of water samples, basaluminite can reduce the ions content in the AMD and enrich Cu, Ni, Mo, Cr and F ions, showing an excellent self-purification capacity of the water body. These results are helpful to improve the understanding of secondary mineral and its environmental response, and are of great significance for the environmental protection and sustainable development of mining area.

Mining area ecological protection: knowledge production from the perspective of planned behavior theory

To assess residents’ knowledge of ecological protection in mining areas, an analytical model following the planned behavior theory was developed. Data from China’s Huainan mining area were collected through a questionnaire survey and statistically analyzed through a structural equation model and a resistance diagnosis. Results showed that the relative importance of behavior perception (0.457), behavior attitude (0.332), and behavior norms (0.231) to the mining area ecological protection decreases successively for mining area residents. Further, the dominant influencing factors of economic benefits and neighborhood ethic pressure are identical, except for the observed variables of behavior perception, and there is a difference between the second and the third observed variables in relation to behavior attitude. Finally, it was also found that the causal chain path coefficient of groups with no willingness to pay was greater than that of the others. The findings of this study can help understand the impacts between the behavior cognition of mining area ecological protection and ecological protection, as well as the impact of mining area resident behavior willingness on the causal chain. Further, ecological protection knowledge production based on these are beneficial to achieve ecological security and sustainable development of mining areas. To improve knowledge productions, it is recommended to introduce the concept of ‘co-construction, co-governance, and sharing’ into the production system, devising new means of precise data gathering interventions, and optimizing a new path of value realization.

Prediction of water resource carrying capacity by the analytic hierarchy process-fuzzy discrimination method in a mining area

The problem of water damage caused by coal mining has been a widespread concern in all sectors of society. Research into carrying ability relations of coal mining and water resources in mining areas is the foundation to solve this problem. It is also important to evaluate the sustainable development of mining areas as well as explore aquifer-protective mining. Based on the analysis of the characteristics and connotations of mining area water resource carrying capacity (MAWRCC), the fuzzy synthetic discriminant method is used as the evaluation method, and water resource carrying capacity (WRCC) as the evaluation standard. The evaluation system of MAWRCC under a mining action is constructed, and the main influencing factors and subordinate functions of MAWRCC are analyzed. Also, the membership degree of the influence factor is calculated. Methods for the rationality and influence factors of reliability are proven in the Shendong and Yili mining areas. They predicted the state of WRCC of the Yili mine for the next three years, under the conditions of carrying out or not carrying out aquifer-protective mining. According to the calculation results, the parameters of coal mining are the initiating factor caused by MAWRCC. Aquifer-protective mining is an effective measure to control the WRCC. The research results have important reference value and academic significance for the evaluation of MAWRCC.

A landscape approach towards ecological restoration and sustainable development of mining areas

Mining activities have caused severe environmental pollution and ecological degradation in China. The rehabilitation and ecological reconstruction of mine lands is a key problem for the sustainable development of the mining industry. However, the reclamation rate remains low and restoration is not complete in most areas in China. Based on an analysis of the main environmental problems in mining areas, the utilization of a landscape strategy and “natural” technology in ecological restoration of mine is suggested in this paper. The principles and technologies of restoration ecology and landscape ecology can be used in the process of mine restoration to improve restoration and assure long-term results. A multi-objective integration approach is proposed based on landscape planning for the conservation and wise use of mine lands through local or regional actions and cooperation with the goal of achieving sustainable development in the mining industry in China.

Mine water: policy perspective for improving water management in the mining environment with respect to developing economies

Mine water is a resource and potential nuisance at the same time and its management is a major challenge for the worldwide mining industry. Its quality and quantity relates to the ore and mining type, and might result in environmental pollution if not properly used or managed. The entire water management and conservation needs to be addressed by all stakeholders involved and it has to be a bottom-up, rather than a top-down approach, taking into consideration site-specific conditions. We propose that some key policy areas, if implemented into practice, will provide direct benefits to mine operators and consequently mine water management can be improved at different levels. In the future, the concerns of the community and social welfare must not be ignored for any reason whatsoever. This technical analysis therefore stresses upon results-oriented pragmatic efforts for mine water resources development and management, which gives direction to green mining and sustainable development of mining areas. Best Practice Water Management and Intelligent Mine Water Management can be considered the best solution, maintaining an acceptable standard of living – now and in the future. This paper, meant for the benefits of the mining industry of developing countries in particular, discusses key mine water areas in a policy perspective. To obtain satisfying environmental protection, mine water management should be jointly enforced by the industry, regulators and stakeholders.

Fuzzy Evaluation Method of Sustainable Development of Mining Area

With respect to mining area, to establish an evaluation system that aims to reflecting its actual condition and assessing its sustainable development ability has been of importance. In this paper, we discussed the meaning of sustainable development and evaluation factors, and then built a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model to evaluate the sustainable development condition of mining area.

Current Status, Challenges and Policy Recommendations Regarding the Sustainable Development of Mining Areas in China

As important suppliers of energy resources, mining areas have made huge contributions to China's socio-economic development. However, some factors are inhibiting the further development of mining areas and, thereby pose a threat to social stability, as well as resource and energy security in the country. In 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission formulated a project aiming to support the sustainable development of mining areas. This study collected and compiled the project's first-hand survey data from 128 mining areas across China and comprehensively investigated the current development status of the country's mining areas. The problems facing the development of China's mining areas are analyzed, and four specific suggestions are provided, namely: promote industry transformation, remove institutional constraints, improve people's livelihoods to maintain the stability of mining areas, and protect the environment to provide a clean, healthy living environment for mining area residents. This paper provides the first comprehensive and systematic picture of China's mining areas and highlights the importance of mining areas for the country's economic and social development.

The System of Soil Management in the Coal Mining Collapse Area

The environment restoring of the coal mining collapse area directly relates the region economy, the social stabilization, the ecological environment, also relates the sustainable development of mining area. And this is a serious problem for the mining area in China. In order to improve the environment of mining area, this paper analyzes the presence of collapse area in China. This paper analyzes the damages of coal mining collapse and the problems existing in the management and regulation of the collapse region. In addition to researching the way of soil management of coal mining subsidence area with Geographic Information System technology, he also exemplified the feasibility and necessity in soil management of the coal mining collapse area with Geographic Information System technology.

Study on the Comprehensive Consolidation and Ecological Reclamation of Coal Mining Areas in Jiaozuo

Land subsidence and ecological problems caused by underground mining threaten seriously the sustainable development of mining areas. An example of coal mining areas in the northwest of Henan province is studied. The subsided areas amount to 70 km2 and the maximum subsided depth is more than ten meters. A series of serious problems, such as soil erosion, soil fertility declining and vegetation degeneration, are caused by land subsidence. Engineering measures are adopted for the subsided lands in hilly areas to rebuild the land as types of terrace and gentle slope, and that in the plain to renovate with methods, such as drainage, filling with coal waste rocks or fly ashes, deepening lower subsidence and filling higher subsidence. At the same time, biological measures, such as planting peanuts, soybean and other legume perennial or annual herbs, and adding organic fertilizer are used to improve the reclaimed soil quality.

Impacts of coal mining subsidence on the surface landscape in Longkou city, Shandong Province of China

Coal mining subsidence is a common human geological disaster that was particularly conspicuous in China. It seriously restricts the sustainable development of mining areas, and it not only damages land resources but also triggers a series of ecological and environmental problems that may result in social and economic issues. This report studied the coal mining subsidence area of Longkou in Shandong province and uses digital elevation data (DEM) of the mining area before subsidence in 1978 as the baseline elevation. Through image algorithms, we obtained coal mining subsidence region data for 1984, 1996, 2000, and 2004. And with spatial data sources of the same period of TM/ETM+ and SPOT5 remote sensing images, BP artificial neural network (BPNN) classification is used to extract surface landscape information in the subsidence area. With the support of GIS technology, superimposing subsidence area on the surface landscape—using the largest landscape ecology patch index, landscape shape index, landscape condensation index, and the index of landscape distribution—report analyzes the mining landscape changes before and after subsidence. This study also carries on exploratory research with the landscape changes, thereby providing a scientific basis for integrated prevention and treatment.