As the construction of ecological civilization has become more and more important in recent years, ecological restoration and its effect assessment have also received increasing attention. Taking the Wangping coal mine in Beijing as an example, based on Landsat TM/OLI series remote sensing data, we chose five metrics, i.e., fraction vegetation coverage, humidity, heat, dryness, and black particulates, to construct the model for the modified remote sensing ecological index (MRSEI). It was also combined with the Hurst index to conduct dynamic monitoring, spatiotemporal analysis, and prediction studies of the ecological environment quality in the study area. The results showed that: (1) Compared with the RSEI, the first principal component of the MRSEI better integrates the information of each component indicator, has a better average correlation with each indicator, and better reflects the habitat condition in the study area. (2) The mean value of the MRSEI in the study area increased from 0.433 in 1990 to 0.722 in 2021, an increase of 40.03%. (3) From 1990 to 2001, the poor and fair MRSEI-grade areas in the study area were concentrated in the northeastern and southwestern parts of the area. After the ecological restoration project was carried out, the environmental quality of the Wangping coal mine improved year by year, and a small number of poor areas were concentrated in the northeastern border area. (4) The MRSEI of the Wangping coal mine predicted that the future ecological environment of the study area would show a general trend of continuous improvement, but a certain percentage of the area in the northeast had a weak antisustainability trend. The results of the study could provide a reference for ecological restoration planning, sustainable development, and the management of mining areas.

Understanding the degradation kinetics and mechanisms of trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) by UV-based advanced oxidation processes (UV-AOPs) are pivotal in realizing their efficient application in water treatment. However, the relevant knowledge in practical flow-through reactors remains a void, compared with that of commonly used batch reactors. To fill the knowledge gaps, the current work investigated the degradation of atrazine (ATZ) in flow-through UV-AOP systems with different light sources and chlorine additions. The results showed that UV/Cl₂ in the reactors (with a diameter of 50 mm) was not very efficient in ATZ degradation while the pseudo-first order degradation rate constant was elevated by over 2.7 times with vacuum UV (VUV)/UV. In contrast to observations in the batch reactors, the addition of chlorine to the flow-through VUV/UV system unexpectedly decreased the rate constant by about 39%. The analysis of the relative contributions of different degradation pathways revealed that the inhibitory effect of the chlorine addition arose from the transformation of HO^• to reactive chlorine species (e.g., ClO^•) which had low reaction rate constants with ATZ. The baffle implementation promoted the ATZ degradation by 12–58%, mainly due to an enhanced mixing that facilitated the radical oxidation. The energy costs of the UV-AOPs in ATZ removal ranged within 0.40–1.11 kWh m⁻³ order⁻¹. The findings of this work are helpful in guiding efficient VUV/UV and VUV/UV/Cl₂ processes in drinking water treatment.