The overlapped areas of cropland and coal resources play a fundamental role in promoting economic and social progress. However, intensive mining operations in high water-level areas have brought significant spatial–temporal heterogeneity and ecological problems. From the dual dimensions of the ecosystem service value (ESV) and ecological risk (ER), it is of great significance to explore the influence characteristics of underground mining on the landscape, such as above-ground cultivated land, which is valuable to achieving regional governance and coordinated development. In this study, taking Peixian as the research area, a multiple-dimensional correlation framework was constructed based on the revised ESV and ER, integrating the grey relational degree, spatial–temporal heterogeneity, disequilibrium, and inconsistency index to explore the ESV and ER assessment and correlation characteristics from 2010 to 2020. The results show that (1) the ESV showed a high agglomerated distribution pattern in the east, with a net decrease of 13.61%. (2) The ER decreased by 78.18 and was concentrated in the western and southern regions, with overall contiguous and local agglomeration characteristics. This indicates that the ecological security of the region has improved. (3) The comprehensive grey correlation between the cultural service value and the ecological risk index was the highest. Furthermore, the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of the ESV and ER weakened, and the disequilibrium rose and then fell, indicating that the ecosystem gradually tended to be stable. The study is crucial for overlapped cropland and coal resource areas to maintain stability and sustainable development. The multivariate correlation framework provides practical value for ecosystem management and risk control.
30 December 2023 in Environmental Science and Pollution Research
Under the growing restrictions of the Chinese eco-environmental policies, the impact of under-lake coal mining on wetlands is receiving increasing attention from both coal mining enterprises and local governments. This paper focuses on the impact of under-lake coal mining on the Nansi Lake wetland from 1991 to 2021. Field measurements, resident surveys, and remote sensing inversion were comprehensively employed to quantitatively assess the impact. The calculation of the assessment indicators refers to the elastic coefficient, the information for which comes from four major categories of ecosystem service values (ESVs) and eight sub-ESVs. According to the results of the remote sensing interpretation and inversion, by 2021 the range had enlarged by 32.3 km2, and the water depth had increased by 1.9 m in the mining-disturbed area relative to 1991. The ESV fluctuations in the Nansi Lake wetland also exhibited a generally increasing trend over time. Our results show that the under-lake mining disturbs the ESVs, but the disturbance is not sufficient to result in significant consequences. Based on the data analysis, we suggest several well-directed, appropriate restoration strategies to achieve the desired objectives and target the response of the ESV changes. Such measures will help to relieve some of the anxiety and concern about the wetland changes caused by the under-lake mining.
24 March 2026 in Environment, Development and Sustainability