Land Subsidence Related to Coal Mining in China Revealed by L-Band InSAR Analysis

Liping Zheng, Lin Zhu, Wei Wang, Lin Guo and Beibei Chen
Additional contact information
Liping Zheng: Laboratory Cultivation Base of Environment Process and Digital Simulation, College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
Lin Zhu: Laboratory Cultivation Base of Environment Process and Digital Simulation, College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
Wei Wang: Tianjin Center of China Geological Survey, Tianjin 300170, China
Lin Guo: Laboratory Cultivation Base of Environment Process and Digital Simulation, College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China
Beibei Chen: Laboratory Cultivation Base of Environment Process and Digital Simulation, College of Resource Environment and Tourism, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100048, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-19

Abstract: Geological disasters, including ground deformation, fractures and collapse, are serious problems in coal mining regions, which have threatened the sustainable development for local industry. The Ordos Basin is most known for its abundant coal resources. Over-mining the underground coal resources had induced land deformation. Detecting the evolution of the land deformation features and identifying the potential risk are important for decision-makers to prevent geological disasters. We analyzed land subsidence induced by coal mining in a 200 km 2 area in the Ordos Basin for the time period 2006–2015. ALOS-1 PALSAR images from December 2006 to January 2011 and ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 images from December 2014 to July 2015, optical remotely sensed images and coal mining information were collected. The small baseline subset interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SBAS-InSAR) method and differential interferometric synthetic aperture radar (D-InSAR) method, GIS and statistical analysis were adopted. Results show that the maximum subsidence rate and cumulative subsidence along the line of sight (LOS) were −65 mm/year and −246 mm, respectively, from December 2006 to January 2011. The maximum cumulative subsidence was −226 mm from December 2014 to July 2015. The new boundary of the mining goafs from 2014 to 2015 and the most dangerous risk region were mapped. Moreover, the effect of large-scale mining coal, with the production volume exceeds 1.2 million tons per year, with the operation time more than 20 years on land subsidence was found greater than small and medium-scale coal mines and reached −59 mm/year. The recently established small-sized and medium-sized coal mines show high land subsidence. This study will contribute to better understand the land subsidence process in mining region and provide scientific support for government to prevent land subsidence.

Keywords: land subsidence; InSAR; potential risk region; coal mining; Ordos (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1170/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/4/1170/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:4:p:1170-:d:319869

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().