Study on the Geological Environmental Disturbance and Reclamation Technology of Underground Coalmines: A Case Study, Xinjiang, China

In order to scientifically evaluate the disturbance level of geological environment caused by coal mining in northwest China, and to formulate the corresponding restoration plan of the broken ecological environment, an underground coalmine in the Xinjiang province, the most northwestern province in China, was selected as the researching object of this paper. Firstly, surface subsidence and aquifer destruction were selected as two typical indexes to evaluate the environmental disturbance level of the target underground coalmine, based on the result of a thorough field investigation. After that, a COMSOL numerical model and a theoretical calculating model were established respectively according to the geological condition of the target mine, to evaluate the surface subsidence and aquifer destruction in the early stage (5 years), medium stage (10 years) and long-term stage (20 years) of the full life cycle of the target coalmine. Finally, corresponding land reclamation technologies including collapse backfill, land levelling and vegetation recovery, and follow-up monitoring measures consist of periodic-offline manual observation and continuous-online sensor observation, were put forward in terms of the different disturbance level of the mine environment within different mining stages. The conclusions of this paper can provide a reference for mine environment control and land reclamation in the ecologically fragile areas of Northwest China.