Carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems plays an essential role in coping with global climate change and achieving regional carbon neutrality. In mining areas with high groundwater levels in eastern China, underground coal mining has caused severe damage to surface ecology. It is of practical significance to evaluate and predict the positive and negative effects of coal mining and land reclamation on carbon pools. This study set up three scenarios for the development of the Yanzhou coalfield (YZC) in 2030, including: (1) no mining activities (NMA); (2) no reclamation after mining (NRM); (3) mining and reclamation (MR). The probability integral model (PIM) was used to predict the subsidence caused by mining in YZC in 2030, and land use and land cover (LULC) of 2010 and 2020 were interpreted by remote sensing images. Based on the classification of land damage, the LULC of different scenarios in the future was simulated by integrating various social and natural factors. Under different scenarios, the InVEST model evaluated carbon storage and its temporal and spatial distribution characteristics. The results indicated that: (1) By 2030, YZC would have 4341.13 ha of land disturbed by coal mining activities. (2) Carbon storage in the NRM scenario would be 37,647.11 Mg lower than that in the NMA scenario, while carbon storage in the MR scenario would be 18,151.03 Mg higher than that in the NRM scenario. Significantly, the Nantun mine would reduce carbon sequestration loss by 72.29% due to reclamation measures. (3) Carbon storage has a significant positive spatial correlation, and coal mining would lead to the fragmentation of the carbon sink. The method of accounting for and predicting carbon storage proposed in this study can provide data support for mining and reclamation planning of coal mine enterprises and carbon-neutral planning of government departments.

Widespread ground fissures caused by coal mining subsidence are a main cause of ecological destruction in coal mining areas, and the rapid monitoring of ground fissures is essential for ecological restoration. Traditional fissure monitoring technologies are time consuming and laborious. Therefore, we developed a method to automatically extract ground fissures from high-resolution UAV images. First, a multiscale Hessian-based enhancement filter was utilized to enhance the ground fissures in grayscale images. Then, a simple single-thresholding operation was applied to segment the enhanced image to generate a binary ground fissure map. Finally, incomplete path opening was performed to eliminate the noises in the fissure extraction results. We selected the N1212 working face of the Ningtiaota Coal Mine in Shenmu County, China, as the study area. The results indicated that the ranges of correctness, completeness, and the kappa coefficient of the extracted results were 66.23–79.00%, 69.03–73.22%, and 67.91–75.88%, respectively. Image resolution is the key factor for successful fissure detection; the method proposed in this paper can extract ground fissures with a width greater than one pixel (2.64 cm), and the detection ratio for fissures with a width greater than two pixels was over 87%. Our research has solved the problem of the rapid monitoring of ground fissures to a certain extent and can act as a valuable tool for ecological restoration in mining areas.

An observatory was established at the Ningtiaota Mine (China) in order to investigate the surface deformation pattern of N00 method workings mining in shallow buried thick coal seams in a windy-sand area. The observatory allows one to measure the coupling between the periodic changes of parameters related to ground subsidence and ground cracks with workings advancement. The data monitored in the field indicate that when the adjacent mining workings are mined below the ground, a sinkhole basin with a larger impact area will be formed. New ground fractures are formed above the mining area to connect with the fractures above the mining face. As a consequence a new pattern of “O” circle distribution beyond the working face is formed, which develops rapidly during the working face recovery. In addition, the dynamic fractures in coal mining are characterized by the phenomenon of self-healing. Our findings will help to protect the surface environment of the mine area during shallow buried high-intensity mining activities in the Lime Tower coal mine, and are also an important guideline in other windy beach mining areas.

Farmland protection and food security is highly focused on in China. However, coal mining has caused negative consequences to cropland in coal–crop overlapped areas (COA), especially in eastern China. Thus, revealing the spatiotemporal impact of coal mining on farmland on a large scale is crucial for coordinating coal mining and grainland protection. In this study, Shandong Province, a representative coal–grain composite area, was selected as a research case to evaluate the damage of mining subsidence on farmland. Firstly, the field investigation and mining subsidence prediction revealed the current situation and trend of farmland damage caused by mining in 2021 and 2030. Then, we evaluated the impact of cropland damage on grain yield. Finally, farmland landscape patterns, ecological environment, and social stability due to mining subsidence were discussed. The results show that: (1) the damaged cropland in 2021 was 6.40 × 10⁴ ha, of which 1.40 × 10⁴ ha was non-yield. By 2030, the accumulative area of damaged cropland is estimated to reach 7.52 × 10⁴ ha. (2) By 2025 and 2030, the farmland yield will be reduced by 16.44 × 10⁴ t and 18.45 × 10⁴ t in overlapped areas of Shandong. (3) The subsidence led to cropland fragmentation, and the terrestrial ecosystem became an aquatic ecosystem, further intensifying the contradiction between more people and less land. This study provides a reference for coordinating coal and grain production and formulating cropland protection strategies in similar regions. Meanwhile, it also provides a scientific basis for the government to formulate land reclamation indicators, technology, management, and acceptance standards and establish and implement the reclamation reward and punishment system.

Surface mining inevitably impacts the ecological environment, especially in alpine and fragile mining areas. Thus, it is worth discussing the dynamic impact process of mining on regional land use and landscapes. In this study, we took the Muli coalfield, a typical alpine mining area on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), as an example and analyzed the changing characteristics of the eco-environment in 2003–2010 (low-intensity mining), 2010–2014 (large-scale mining), and 2014–2020 (restoration) through a land use transfer matrix, landscape fragmentation index and vegetation cover based on remote sensing data, and discussed the problems and lessons learned. The results show that: (1) the land use transfer process changed from active to basically stable. During the mining phase, the land use transfers were complex and mainly consisted of the transfers of grassland to production land. The land use transfers during the restoration phase were not obvious. (2) Natural landscape types (e.g., river and grassland) were separated by surface mining. In terms of landscape fragmentation, the patch densities showed an increasing trend, while the patch shape fragmentation index showed first decreased and then increased. Additionally, the level of landscape fragmentation during the restoration phase did not change significantly. (3) The changes in average vegetation cover in the gangue fields occurred in four stages: i) gradually decreases from 2003 to 2010, ii) rapid decreases from 2010 to 2014, iii) increases from 2014 to 2017, and iv) further decreases again after 2017. (4) We summarized the lessons learned from the mining and restoration processes and provided a reference for addressing the conflict between mineral exploitation and environmental protection in ecologically fragile alpine mining areas.

The current supply method of land acquisition for mining land in China is not conducive to the sustainable use of land resources, resulting in a large amount of wasted land resources and causing many conflicts. The new model of temporary land use policy for mining solves the long-standing problem of the livelihood of expropriated farmers that has plagued local governments, and also helps to alleviate the conflicts between enterprises and farmers. However, the temporary land use policy is in the practice stage, and the policy failure has resulted in low land reclamation rates. This research is a systematic survey for large and medium-sized mining enterprises, relevant government departments and research institutions nationwide. From the survey we analyze the problems in the implementation of the current temporary land use policy for mining and the causes of the policy failure, and propose an effective implementation mechanism for the future policy. The study showed that: (1) the temporary land use policy for mining was enacted with wide acceptance, but the implementation of the policy was ineffective; (2) the conditions for the application of the temporary land use policy for mining are unclear, the review and supervision by the competent authorities are not strict, and enterprises do not pay attention to land reclamation resulting in a very low rate of land reclamation; and (3) The implementation mechanism of the temporary mining land policy in practice is not perfect, and the proposed implementation framework based on “conditions, approval, implementation, supervision, acceptance and withdrawal” is scientific and feasible. It provides a reference for the management and innovation of strict protection of arable land, land conservation and intensification, and land reclamation in mining areas in China.