Vulnerability Measurement of Groundwater Inrush Channel in Mining Areas and Environmental Governance Measures – A Case Study on Taoshan Mine, China

• Main Author: Wei Xiao Gang, Dai Jun Wu, Li Guang Hui, Hu Zhi Kai and Qin Sai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Technoscience Publications 2021-06-01
• Series: Nature Environment and Pollution Technology
• Subjects: underground coal mines, water inrush channel, vulnerability measurement, environmental governance, taoshan mine
• Online Access: https://neptjournal.com/upload-images/(40)G-221.pdf

The unrestricted resource behaviour of mines has caused considerable geological environmental problems. Specifically, the increasing water-induced accidents in mines affect safety production and environmental safety in coal mines. To further decrease water inrush disasters to the maximum extent, vulnerability assessment of groundwater inrush channel in coal mines has become a primary problem of chain-cutting disaster mitigation. In this study, first, influencing factors against formation and project of water inrush channel in coals were analyzed comprehensively. Second, 14 indexes, which influence the vulnerability of the water inrush channel, were selected from three perspectives of coal seam features, coal quality features, and hydrogeological features. A case study based on data of 56# coal seam and 68 coal seam of Taoshan Mine, China was carried out. The vulnerability of the groundwater inrush channel in the Taoshan Mine was estimated by analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy comprehensive evaluation. Results demonstrate that coal quality features, hydrogeological features, and coal seam features are major factors that influence the vulnerability of the water inrush channel. Among them, coal quality features contribute 48.36% of explanations to the vulnerability of the water inrush channel. According to the vulnerability grade evaluation results of fuzzy mathematics, the membership degree of belonging to “III” was 0.3731, which was the highest. This finding indicates that the vulnerability of the water inrush channel in Taoshan Mine belongs to grade III, which is a moderate state. Research conclusions have important references to perfect the evaluation index system for the vulnerability of water inrush channel in coal mines, provide early warning analysis of water inrush disasters in coal mines, and realize the mining–environmental protection coordinated development.