Thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) coupled simulation of the land subsidence due to aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) system in soft soils

Aquifer thermal energy storage(ATES)system has received attention for heating or cooling buildings.However,it is well known that land subsidence becomes a major environmental concern for ATES projects.Yet,the effect of temperature on land subsidence has received practically no attention in the past.This paper presents a thermo-hydro-mechanical(THM)coupled numerical study on an ATES system in Shanghai,China.Four water wells were installed for seasonal heating and cooling of an agriculture greenhouse.The target aquifer at a depth of 74e104.5 m consisted of alternating layers of sand and silty sand and was covered with clay.Groundwater level,temperature,and land subsidence data from 2015 to 2017 were collected using field monitoring instruments.Constrained by data,we constructed a field scale three-dimensional(3D)model using TOUGH(Transport of Unsaturated Groundwater and Heat)and FLAC3D(Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua)equipped with a thermo-elastoplastic constitutive model.The effectiveness of the numerical model was validated by field data.The model was used to reproduce groundwater flow,heat transfer,and mechanical responses in porous media over three years and capture the thermo-and pressure-induced land subsidence.The results show that the maximum thermoinduced land subsidence accounts for about 60%of the total subsidence.The thermo-induced subsidence is slightly greater in winter than that in summer,and more pronounced near the cold well area than the hot well area.This study provides some valuable guidelines for controlling land subsidence caused by ATES systems installed in soft soils.

Using neural network modeling to improve the detection accuracy of land subsidence due to groundwater withdrawal

Despite the high efficiency of remote sensing methods for rapid and large-scale detection of subsidence phenomena,this technique has limitations such as atmospheric impact and temporal and spatial decorrelation that affect the accuracy of the results.This paper proposes a method based on an artificial neural network to improve the results of monitoring land subsidence due to groundwater overexploitation by radar interferometry in the Aliabad plain(Central Iran).In this regard,vertical ground deformations were monitored over 18 months using the Sentinel-1A SAR images.To model the land subsidence by a multilayer perceptron(MLP)artificial neural network,four parameters,including groundwater level,alluvial thickness,elastic modulus,and transmissivity have been applied.The model's generalizability was assessed using data derived for 144 days.According to the results,the neural network estimates the land subsidence at each ground point with an accuracy of 6.8 mm.A comparison between the predicted and actual values indicated a significant agreement.The MLP model can be used to improve the results of subsidence detection in the study area or other areas with similar characteristics.

Spatial-temporal Characteristics of Land Subsidence Corresponding to Dynamic Groundwater Funnel in Beijing Municipality,China

Due to long-term over-exploitation of groundwater in Beijing Municipality, regional groundwater funnels have formed and land subsidence has been induced. By combining a groundwater monitoring network, GPS monitor- ing network data, radar satellite SAR data, GIS and other new technologies, a coupled process model based on the dy- namic variation of groundwater and the deformation response of land subsidence has been established. The dynamic variation of groundwater fimnels and the land subsidence response process were analyzed systematically in Beijing. Study results indicate that current groundwater funnel areas are distributed mainly in the southwest of Shunyi District, the northeast of Chaoyang District and the northwest of Tongzhou District, with an average decline rate of groundwa- ter level of 2.66 rn/yr and a maximum of 3.82 m/yr in the center of the funnels. Seasonal and interannual differences exist in the response model of land subsidence to groundwater funnels with uneven spatial and temporal distribution, where the maximum land subsidence rate was about --41.08 mm/yr and the area with a subsidence rate greater than 30 mm/yr was about 1637.29 km2. Although a consistency was revealed to exist between a groundwater funnel and the spatial distribution characteristics of the corresponding land subsidence funnel, this consistency was not perfect. The results showed that the response model of land subsidence to the dynamic variation of groundwater was more revealing when combining conventional technologies with InSAR, GIS, GPS, providing a new strategy for environmental and hydrogeological research and a scientific basis for regional land subsidence control.

The Characteristics and Causes of Land Subsidence in Tanggu Based on the GPS Survey System and Numerical Simulation

Land subsidence is a severe hazard threatening Tanggu, a flat lowland area, and evidences of land subsidence can be seen throughout the city. A new reasonable GPS network was set up in this area from 2008 to 2010. The monitoring data show that land subsidence was serious and two main subsidence cones were obviously formed in the region. One emerged at Hujiayuan, with the maximum rate reaching 60 ram/a, and the influence region enlarged prominently from 2005 to 2010. The other one occurred at Kaifaqu, which became obvious only after 2005, and it showed a decreasing tendency with time. To analyze the causes of ground settlement, a correlation between groundwater withdrawal and land subsidence was firstly made. The results confirmed that over-exploitation of groundwater was the major cause for the severe settlement in Hujiayuan. Meanwhile, the subsidence of Kaifaqu was also related to groundwater withdrawal before 2005. However, the relationship became unconspicuous after 2005. To find the cause of this abnormity, a three-dimensional finite element numerical model, coupled with groundwater flow and subsidence, was built. The simulation results indicate that the subsidence induced by high-rise buildings is serious, but the affected range is limited and it also shows a decreasing trend with time, corresponding to the subsidence characteristics at Kaifaqu. Therefore, more attention should be paid to this hazard induced by engineering construction besides groundwater withdrawal, as more high-rise buildings are under construction in Tanggu.

Comprehensive Analysis and Artificial Intelligent Simulation of Land Subsidence of Beijing, China

Mechanism and modeling of the land subsidence are complex because of the complicate geological background in Beijing, China. This paper analyzed the spatial relationship between land subsidence and three factors, including the change of groundwater level, the thickness of compressible sediments and the building area by using remote sensing and GIS tools in the upper-middle part of alluvial-proluvial plain fan of the Chaobai River in Beijing. Based on the spatial analysis of the land subsidence and three factors, there exist significant non-linear relationship between the vertical displacement and three factors. The Back Propagation Neural Network (BPN) model combined with Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used to simulate regional distribution of the land subsidence. Results showed that at field scale, the groundwater level and land subsidence showed a significant linear relationship. However, at regional scale, the spatial distribution of groundwater depletion funnel did not overlap with the land subsidence funnel. As to the factor of compressible strata, the places with the biggest compressible strata thickness did not have the largest vertical displacement. The distributions of building area and land subsidence have no obvious spatial relationships. The BPN-GA model simulation results illustrated that the accuracy of the trained model during fifty years is acceptable with an error of 51% of verification data less than 20 mm and the average of the absolute error about 32 mm. The BPN model could be utilized to simulate the general distribution of land subsidence in the study area. Overall, this work contributes to better understand the complex relationship between the land subsidence and three influencing factors. And the distribution of the land subsidence can be simulated by the trained BPN-GA model with the limited available dada and acceptable accuracy.

Prediction of land subsidence caused by groundwater exploitation in Hanoi, Vietnam, using multifactorial correlation analysis

Multifactorial correlation analysis is a new method used to predict the land subsidence caused by groundwater exploitation This article introduces and applies the method to establish the function of the surface settlement rate （Vs） and the function of the time-dependent surface settlement （St） caused by groundwater exploitation, based on data acquired at three land subsidence monitoring stations in the Hanoi area of Vietnam. Comparison with actual monitoring data indicates that the prediction results are relatively close to the monitoring data. From this, we conclude that multifactorial correlation analysis is a reliable method and can be used to predict future land subsidence caused by groundwater exploitation in Hanoi.

Role of the different planting age of seabuckthorn forests to soil amelioration in coal mining subsidence land

To investigate the effects of seabuckthorn(Hippophae rhamnoides)on soil amelioration,using the space replacement method,soil physical and chemical indexes as well as the microorganism quantity and soil enzyme activities were analyzed.The results showed that:the soil bulk density of surface soil decreased and soil porosity and field capacity increased after afforestation with seabuckthorn.The plant was found to effectively reduce the soil pH,increase the soil conductivity,soil organic matters and available nutrients.Soil microorganism quantity,soil enzyme activities were both higher in 0-20 cm layer than in 20-40 cm layer.With the increase years of remediation with seabuckthorn,the quantity of soil microorganism and enzyme activities were increasing to a higher level 5 to 8 years later.Our study indicates that seabuckthorn can effectively improve soil physical and chemical properties,increase the quantity of soil microorganisms and enzyme activities,which is of great significance for the ecosystem restoration in mining areas.

Extracting mining subsidence land from remote sensing images based on domain knowledge

Extracting mining subsidence land from RS images is one of important research contents for environment monitoring in mining area. The accuracy of traditional extracting models based on spectral features is low. In order to extract subsidence land from RS images with high accuracy, some domain knowledge should be imported and new models should be proposed. This paper, in terms of the disadvantage of traditional extracting models, imports domain knowledge from practice and experience, converts semantic knowledge into digital information, and proposes a new model for the specific task. By selecting Luan mining area as study area, this new model is tested based on GIS and related knowledge. The result shows that the proposed method is more pre- cise than traditional methods and can satisfy the demands of land subsidence monitoring in mining area.

Land subsidence induced by groundwater extraction and building damage level assessment—a case study of Datun, China

As in many parts of the world, long-term excessive extraction of groundwater has caused significant land-surface sub- sidence in the residential areas of Datun coal mining district in East China. The recorded maximum level of subsidence in the area since 1976 to 2006 is 863 mm, and the area with an accumulative subsidence more than 200 mm has reached 33.1 km2 by the end of 2006. Over ten cases of building crack due to ground subsidence have already been observed. Spatial variation in ground subsi- dence often leads to a corresponding pattern of ground deformation. Buildings and underground infrastructures have been under a higher risk of damage in locations with greater differential ground deformation. Governmental guideline in China classifies build- ing damages into four different levels, based on the observable measures such as the width of wall crack, the degree of door and window deformation, the degree of wall inclination and the degree of structural destruction. Building damage level (BDL) is esti- mated by means of ground deformation analysis in terms of variations in slope gradient and curvature. Ground deformation analysis in terms of variations in slope gradient has shown that the areas of BDL III and BDL II sites account for about 0.013 km2 and 0.284 km2 respectively in 2006, and the predicted areas of BDL (define this first) III and II sites will be about 0.029 km2 and 0.423 km2 respectively by 2010. The situation is getting worse as subsidence continues. That calls for effective strategies for subsidence miti- gation and damage reduction, in terms of sustainable groundwater extraction, enhanced monitoring and the establishment of early warning systems.

Evaluating geological and geotechnical data for the study of land subsidence phenomena at the perimeter of the Amyntaio coalmine,Greece

Land subsidence phenomena caused by the overexploitation of the aquifers require the holistic knowledge of the geological, tectonic, hydrogeological and especially the geotechnical conditions of the affected sites in order to be mitigated. The current paper focuses on the study of the phenomena taking place at the Amyntaio sub-basin, northern Greece, hosting the homonymous open pit coal mine,operating there the last two decades. The mining as well as the rising agriculture activities have led to a significant drawdown of the ground water level triggering extensive ground subsidence phenomena,causing damages at the nearby villages, infrastructure and farmlands. The production and evaluation of engineering geological–geotechnical maps as well as of thematic tectonic and hydrogeological maps proved that the knowledge of this data is crucial for the interpretation of the land subsidence mechanism and the spatial distribution of its effects.

Numerical Simulation of Land Subsidence at Tanggu District in Tianjin, China

Based on observed data from Tanggu District in Tianjin, a back-propagation neural network (BPNN) model was introduced to predict possible land subsidence due to exploitation of groundwater. According to model estimation under various hypothetical extraction scenarios, patterns of land subsidence at Tanggu District were studied and discussed.The predicted average background land subsidence rate of Tanggu is 9.47 mm/a.The significance of contribution of aquifers to land subsidence descends in order of units Ⅳ,Ⅲ,Ⅴ,Ⅱ.Land subsidence tends to deteriorate with the increase in total extraction rate.

Advances and Practices on the Research, Prevention and Control of Land Subsidence in Coastal Cities

Land subsidence severely threatens most of the coastal plains around the world where high productive industrial and agricultural activities and urban centers are concentrated. Coastal subsidence damages infrastructures and exacerbates the effect of the sea-level rise at regional scale. Although it is a well-known process, there is still much more to be improved on the monitoring, mapping and modeling of ground movements, as well as the understanding of controlling mechanisms. The International Geoscience Programme recently approved an international project(IGCP 663) aiming to bring together worldwide researchers to share expertise on subsidence processes typically occurring in coastal areas and cities, including basic research, monitoring and observation, modelling and management. In this paper, we provide the research communities and potential stakeholders with the basic information to join the participating teams in developing this project. Specifically, major advances on coastal subsidence studies and information on well-known and new case studies of land subsidence in China, Italy, The Netherlands, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand are highlighted and summarized. Meanwhile, the networking, dissemination, annual meeting and field trip are briefly introduced.

Land subsidence monitoring by D-InSAR technique

Nowadays, the researches of using Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (D-InSAR) tech- nique to monitor the land subsidence are mainly on how to qualitatively analyze the subsidence areas and values, but the analysis of subsidence process and mechanism are insufficient. In order to resolve these problems, 6 scenes of ERS1/2 images captured during 1995 and 2000 in a certain place of Jiangsu province were selected to obtain the subsidence and velocities in three time segments by ''two-pass'' D- InSAR method. Then the relationships among distributions of pumping wells, exploitation quantity of groundwater, and confined water levels were studied and the subsidence mechanism was systematically analyzed. The results show that using D-InSAR technique to monitor the deformation of large area can obtain high accuracies, the disadvantages of classical observation methods can be remedied and there is a linear relationship among the velocities of land subsidence, the water level and the exploitation quantity.

The monitoring and analysis of the coastal lowland subsidence in the southern Hangzhou Bay with an advanced time-series InSAR method

Time-series InSAR analysis（e.g., permanent scatterers（PSInSAR）） has been proven as an effective technology in monitoring ground deformation over urban areas. However, it is a big challenge to apply this technology in coastal regions due to the lack of man-made targets. An distributed scatterers interferometric synthetic aperture radar（DSInSAR） is developed to solve the problem of insufficient samples and low reliability in monitoring coastal lowland subsidence, by applying a spatially adaptive filter and an eigendecomposition algorithm to estimating the optimal phase of statistically homogeneous distributed scatterers（DSs）. Twenty-four scenes of COSMO-Sky Med images acquired between 2013 and 2015 are used to retrieve the land subsidence over the Shangyu District on south coast of the Hangzhou Bay, Zhejiang Province, China. The spatial pattern of the land subsidence obtained by the PS-InSAR and the DSInSAR coincides with each other, but the density of the DSs is three point five times higher than the permanent scatterers（PSs）. Validated by precise levelling data over the same period, the DSInSAR method achieves an accuracy of ±5.0 mm/a which is superior to the PS-InSAR with±5.5 mm/a. The land subsidence in the Shangyu District is mainly distributed in the urban areas, industrial towns and land reclamation zones, with a maximum subsidence rate -30.2 mm/a. The analysis of geological data, field investigation and historical reclamation data indicates that human activities and natural compaction of reclamation material are major causes of the detected land subsidence. The results demonstrate that the DSInSAR method has a great potential in monitoring the coastal lowland subsidence and can be used to further investigate subsidence-related environmental issues in coastal regions.

Comprehensive study on ecological restoration and land exploitation of mining subsidence in suburbs of Chinese mining cities

China has nearly a hundred mining cities derived from mining development.While mining development has brought about immense achievements in a city’s economic construction,it has also resulted in different levels of damage to the eco-environment of the mining city,leaving behind a lot of subsided wasteland and heavily confining the sustainable development and transformation there.How to restore and exploit the land and eco-environment disrupted by mining development in an effective way,therefore,has become a pressing challenge that Chinese mining cities are facing.In this paper,the planning and construction of Nanhu Eco-city in the suburb of Tangshan City is analyzed as an example.After characterizing the coal-mining subsided lands in Kailuan Tangshan Mine originated in different periods and under different geological mining conditions and evaluating their safety level,the authors try to demonstrate how eco-restoration and comprehensive land exploitation should be implemented by making the best use of available local resources to achieve "economy-society-environment" sustainability and coexistence in a mining city.

DISASTER ANALYSIS AND COUNTERMEASURES OF LAND SUBSIDENCE CAUSED BY COAL CUTTING IN CHINA

In recent years, many coal-producing countries have paid great atte ntion to the land subsidence caused by coal cutting. In China, because of the de nse population in coalfield areas, the land subsidence hazard is more serious. A fter a brief analysis on the mechanism of land subsidence, this paper gives a co mprehensive and systematical account on all kinds of hazards caused by the land subsidence in China. The study shows that land subsidence has endangered land, b uildings, traffic and communication lines, dykes and dams. It also causes damage to ecological and social environment. In order to lessen the hazard of land sub sidence, preventive measures should be taken to reduce the collapse amount, such as extraction with stowing, banded mining system, succession and coordination m ining system, or high-pressure mudflow between rock strata. Measures of reinfor cing or moving certain buildings should also be taken to reduce the destructive degree. In order to harness the subsidence land and bring them under control for farming, measures should be taken such as filling with spoil or fine breeze, ex cavating the deeper and covering the shallower land.

The Uplift of the Longmenshan Thrust Belt and Subsidence of the West Sichuan Foreland Basin

Based on fission track dating of apatite, and measurement of vitrinite reflectance of rock samples from the Longmenshan (Longmen Mountain)area and the West Sichuan foreland basin and computer modelling it is concluded that (l)the Songpan-Garze fold belt has uplifted at least by 3-4 km with an uplift rate of no less than 0.3-0.4 mm/a since 10 Ma B.P.; (2) the Longmenshan thrust nappe belt has uplifted at least by 5-6 km with an uplift rate of more than 0.5- 0.6 mm /a since 10 Ma B.P.; (3) the Longmenshan detachment belt has uplifted by 1 - 2 km at a rate of 0.016-0.032 mm/a since 60 Ma B.P.; (4) the West Sichuan foreland basin has uplifted by 1.7-3 km at a rate of 0.028-0.05 mm/a since 60 Ma B.P.; (5) the uplift rate of the area on the west side of the Beichuan-Yingxiu-Xiaoguanzi fault for the last 10 Ma is 40 times as much as that on its east side; (6) the uplifting of the the Songpan - Garze fold belt and the subsidence of the West Sichuan foreland basin 60 Ma ago exhibit a mirro-image correlation, i.e. the rapid uplifting of the the Songpan-Garze fold belt was corresponding to the rapid subsidence of the basin;the Songpan-Garze fold belt has uplifted at a much greater rate than the West Sichuan foeland basin in the last 60 Ma;and (7) the palaeogeothermal gradient was 25℃ /km in the West Sichuan foreland basin.

KEY TECHNOLOGY OF D-INSAR AT X-BAND FOR MONITORING LAND SUBSIDENCE IN MINING AREA AND ITS APPLICATION

In theory, land subsidence measurement results with high accuracy can be obtained by using the Differential Interferometry Synthetic Aperture Radar(D-InSAR) at X-band. In practice, however, the measuring accuracy of D-InSAR at X-band has been seriously affected by some factors, e.g., decorrelation and high deformation gradient. In this work, the monitoring capability of D-InSAR for coal-mining subsidence is evaluated by using SAR data acquired by TerrraSAR-X system. The SAR image registration method for low coherence image pairs, the denoising phase filter for high noise level interferogram and atmospheric effects mitigation method are the key technical aspects which directly influence the measurement results of D-InSAR at X-band. Thus, a robust image registration method, an improved phase filter method and an atmospheric effects mitigation method are proposed in this paper. The proposed image registration method successfully achieves InSAR coregistration, while the amplitude cross-correlation cannot properly coregister low coherence SAR image pairs. Moreover, the time complexity of the proposed image registration method is obviously slighter than that of the Singular Value Decomposition(SVD) method. The comparing experiment results and the unwrapping phase results show that the improved Goldstein filter is more effective than the original Goldstein filter in noise elimination. The atmospheric influence correction experiment results show that the land subsidence areas with atmospheric influence correction are more clarified than that of without atmospheric influence correction. In summary, the presented methods directly improved the measurement results of D-InSAR at X-band.

Sediment settlement rate and consolidation time of flling reclamation in coal mining subsidence land

With the continuous growth of the population and the continuous reduction of cultivated land,China’s food security is greatly threatened.In addition,China’s coal mining has been mainly underground mining,causing land subsidence and damaging existing cultivated land.This efect intensifes the contradiction between the growth of the risk population and the reduction of cultivated land.The reclamation of mining subsidence land with Yellow River sediment is often used as an efective way to improve the recovery rate of cultivated land.Shortening the reclamation time and realizing continuous flling are signifcant issues.The work presented in this paper studied the sediment settlement rate and consolidation time by combining theory,feld flling and reclamation tests and numerical simulations.A feld flling test study was carried out in the lowlands of Jibeiwang Village,Qihe County,Shandong Province,China.By calculating the drainage consolidation time,the consolidation factor of 0.015656 m^(2)/d,and the time factor for sediment consolidation of 0.575 were determined.The sediment consolidation time for this test was 9.18 days.The calculation of sediment deposition rate and consolidation time is of great practical signifcance to guide the Yellow River sediment flling,realize continuous flling,and save reclamation time and cost.

Seismic and Geotechnical Study of Land Subsidence and Vulnerability of Rural Buildings

In recent years, the land subsidence due to different phenomena such as excessive withdrawal of groundwater resources has lead to significant damages to farmlands, residential buildings, roads and transmission lines. Inattention to the land subsidence results in the ruining of buildings which in turn causes the migration of people and imposes financial and social costs on the government. In this paper a case study is performed for Marvdasht plain and rural regions of Fars province, Iran. All affecting parameters and their related damages are considered in the study. The variation of groundwater level and the conditions of rainfall and drought processes in recent years are investigated. The effects of faults and the seismic vulnerability of the regions are also studied by seismic methods. Such factor as groundwater level drop, thickness of clay layers, variation in the thickness of layers at the hillsides and the coincidence of the direction of created cracks and fissures with direction of available faults in the studied area have been investigated as the main factors affecting the soil settlement. At the end of the research, appropriate solutions for the land subsidence prevention and consequently the reduction of the related damages are presented.