Incorporating ecological vulnerability assessment into rehabilitation planning for a post-mining area

A practical issue is present in sustaining and rehabilitating the ecologically vulnerable post-mining area in which the environmental condition varies spatially and therefore influenced by multiple factors. This paper attempts to integrate the ecological vulnerability assessment and rehabilitation treatment to assist land managers in revealing vulnerable features along with developing treatments of vulnerability mitigation. Using a post-mining site in a mountainous area in western China as study area, an indicator system and framework for assessing and reducing vulnerability were developed based on a vulnerability analysis. Geo-informatics, such as satellite image processing and spatial analysis, were employed to perform the assessment and planning. It was found that higher exposure and sensitivity are the main causes of increased vulnerability in a seriously disturbed post-mining area. Rehabilitation treatments were arranged spatially and structurally based on the framework of vulnerability mitigation. A pre-evaluation of the effectiveness shows this type of rehabilitation has a convergence effect that clusters and lowers the ecological vulnerability index (EVI). The average value of EVI will be reduced by 15.02% if the minimum standards of rehabilitation can be completed. Altogether, an integration of rehabilitation treatments and the quantification of vulnerability in a spatially explicit manner are critical for planners to gain more insight into ecological vulnerability in post-mining area, which provides guidance to simplify rehabilitation planning with respect to vulnerability mitigation.