The karst collapses induced by environmental changes of the groundwater and their distribution rules in North China

China, whose distribution area of karst region reaches about 3.63 million km², is one of the countries that have the widest karst collapse development. In modern-karst collapses, the karst collapse induced by water environment is an important type in karst collapses of North China. This paper completed a systematic study on the relations between groundwater environmental transformation and karst collapses and their distribution rules in northern China and found out that the karst collapses in northern China are closely related to the change of groundwater environment, which increased along with the declining groundwater levels and increasing hydraulic gradient. Meanwhile, it was also found that in all cases of collapse caused by underground-environmental change of northern China, pumping collapses in urban areas appeared to be the commonest and strongest among modern-karst collapses with 20 regions and 796 mining pits in total, which account for 30.7 and 58% of artificial collapses, respectively, followed by collapses that were induced by mining draining and inrushing water with 33 regions and 282 mining pits, accounting for 20.4%. In addition to the conditions listed above, there were also a few water caving collapse and leakage collapse.