A Mine Environmental GIS: Framework, Key Techniques, and Case Study

The large-scale coal mining has caused serious environmental pollution and ecological damage in the coal mining areas in China. The serious conditions are listed as below: the geological disasters such as landslide, dilapidation, mud-rock flow and so on aroused by mining subsidence; the side effects such as land occupying, side sloping, filtrating and raised dust brought by the waste rock and gangue heap; the ruin of the water cycle system when the groundwater is drained and the waste water is discharged; the air and noise pollution during the coal mining and the transporting processes. Based on the characteristics of acquisition and management of environmental information in China as well as the theory and technology of environmental informatics and GIS, the Mine Environmental GIS (MEGIS) was studied and developed, and some key techniques were investigated. The objective of MEGIS is to manage, inquire and analyze environmental data and provide users with decision support for environmental protection. In the MEGIS, both the Point Mode and the Region Mode of the Gaussian Air Diffusion Model are used to simulate air pollution, and the water quality model is used to simulate the water pollution in 1-dimensional and 2dimensional. The spatial discrete concentration points are used to build up Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) which creates a new isoline or isosurface for environmental analysis in mining areas. Mining subsidence simulation and prediction model was used to analyze ground surface subsidence caused by mining. Using the proposed MEGIS it is much easier to update, manage and analyze environmental data, further to support environmental management decision-making.