Area, isolation, disturbance and age effects on species richness of summer waterbirds in post-mining subsidence lakes,Anhui, China

Background: The species–area relationship is one of the best documented patterns in community ecology.Factors influencing species–area relationship are still not well understood.Since the proposal of the equilibrium theory of island biogeography, many studies have tested the effects of area and isolation, estimating effects of disturbance and patch age were scarce and should also be important bearing.Methods: We investigated summer waterbird species richness in 38 post?mining subsidence lakes in Huainan and Fuyang, Anhui, China, May 25–June 12, 2016.We examined the effects of lake area, isolation(distance to natural water bodies), aquaculture disturbance, lake age and lake state(still sinking or not sinking) on summer waterbird species richness with multivariable linear regression method and model selection method.Results: Our results from multivariable linear regression and model selection were consistent, which showed that species richness was positively related with lake area and negatively related with isolation.Aquaculture disturbance negatively influenced species richness.Highest species richness were found in lakes under intermediate intensity of aquaculture activities with area less than 100 ha and lakes under low intensity of aquaculture activities with area greater than 100 ha.Lake age and lake state had no significant effects on species richness.Conclusions: Species richness was most related with lake area, aquaculture disturbance, and isolation, with lake area had a positive effect, while aquaculture activities and isolation had a negative effect.What's more, aquaculture activi?ties significantly changed the slope of species–area relationship and might impede us finding a relationship between species richness and lake age.

Post-mining Water Management Using Macrophytes and Substrate Media

Feldspar mine may cause environmental problem.Post-mining lake water pollute the environment because it has a low pH containing heavy metals such as aluminium(Al).The research objective was to analyze the effectiveness of water quality changes using Eichorniasp and Thypaangustifolia plants with organic substrates,and to analyze the results of water quality management based on wastewater quality standards.The results showed that the treatment using water from pit lake+material pit lake+clumps of Thypaangustifolia+organic substrate was declared effective in increasing pH and reducing TSS and dissolved metals at 15 days of treatment,indicated by a pH value of 6.7-7.04,a TSS value of 1,710 mg/l to 108 mg/l,and decreased grade Al from 233.0975 mg/l to 190.77 mg/l.The quality standard for Al dissolved metal management has not reached the waste water quality standard,while the results of pH and TSS management are in accordance with the quality standards stipulated with the provisions concerning the wastewater quality standard.

Geotourism Development in Post-mining Area

Generally,the morphology of the post-mining area is steep slopes.Based on geotechnical considerations,the area is no longer allowed for mining areas,because the potential for landslides is very high.The development of the natural potential of the post-mining area in the research area is a geotourism area in the form of outcrops of pumice breccias and karst areas.The positive impact on society is the opportunity to get a job or business opportunity in providing services.Geotourism is a sustainable nature tourism activity with a main focus on the geological appearance of the earth’s surface in order to encourage environmental and cultural understanding,appreciation and conservation as well as local wisdom.The concept of geotourism emphasizes the beauty,uniqueness and rarity of a natural phenomenon that is closely related to geological phenomena.The results of the study indicate the potential for geotourism that includes views of geological structures,stratigraphy,topography,rock types.Regional planning of geotourism is the making of a grand design for geotourism facilities and infrastructure,including a rock museum in the open air,gazebo,jogging track,hiking track,bicycle track,camping area,and viewpoint.

MINErosion 4:Using measurements from a tilting flume-rainfall simulator facility to predict erosion rates from post-mining catchments/landscapes in Central Queensland,Australia

The use of draglines to remove overburden in Queensland opencut mines,results in landscapes that consist of long parallel tertiary overburden spoil-piles that are generally highly saline,dispersive,and highly erodible.The height of these spoil-piles may exceed 50-60 m above the original landscapes and the slopes are at the angle of repose of around 75%or 37°.Legislation and public opinion require that these highly disturbed open-cut post-mining landscapes should be satisfactorily rehabilitated into an approved post-mining land use with acceptable erosion rates.Therefore,these slopes must be reduced before the landscape can be rehabilitated.The most expensive component of the rehabilitation process is the re-shaping and preparation of the overburden to create a suitable landscape for vegetation growth.As soils and overburden varies greatly in their erodibilities,the extent and cost of earthworks can be minimized,and rehabilitation failures avoided,if soil erosion from designed landscapes can be predicted using laboratory-based parameters prior to construction of these landscapes.This paper describes the development of a model for that purpose.A catchment or landscape erosion model MINErosion 4 was developed by upscaling the existing hillslope model MINErosion 3(So,et al.,2018)and integrate it with both ESRI ArcGIS 10.3 or QGIS 3.16(freeware),to predict event based and mean annual erosion rate from a postmining catchment or landscape.MINErosion 3 is a model that can be used to predict event and annual erosion rates from field scale hillslopes using laboratory measured erodibility parameters or routinely measured soil physical and chemical properties,and to derive suitable landscape design parameters(slope gradient,slope length and vegetation cover)that will result in acceptable erosion rates.But it cannot be used to predict the sediment delivery from catchments or landscapes.MINErosion 4 was validated against data collected on three instrumented catchments(up to 0.91 ha in size)on the Curragh mine site in Central Queensland.The agreement between predicted(Y)and measured(x)values were very good with the regression equation of Y-0.92X and an R^(2) value of 0.81 for individual storm events,and Y-1.47X and an R^(2) value of 0.73 for the average annual soil loss.This is probably the first time that a catchment scale erosion is successfully predicted from laboratory measured erodibility parameters.

Restoration technologies of damaged paddy in hilly post-mining and subsidence-stable area of Southwest China

The paddy fields and water storage facilities are seriously damaged by the coal mine subsiding in the hilly post-mining and subsidence-stable areas in China,which make the farmers there being suffered greatly from the lack of water for traditional rice cultivation and daily life.The purpose of this paper is to find a method to restore the damaged paddy fields,thereby promoting sustainable development of land resources,and alleviating the contradiction between people and land,as well as creating a more inhabitable environment.The research methodology included field experiments,cultivated observation,and field investigation.This paper selected the Songzao Mining Area as the research area,and focused on the restoration technologies of damaged paddy fields,through the following four different measures at three experimental fields:(1)Traditional repeated cattle plowing(CK);(2)Water retention agent with repeated cattle plowing(W&C);(3)Film without holes under tilth depth(FO);and(4)Film with holes under tilth depth(FW).At last,a contrastive analysis of the four measures was made according to the results of the experiments.The results show that the use of water retaining agent with repeated cattle plowing(W&C)can be the most appropriate method to restore the damaged paddy field in the hilly post-mining and subsidence-stable area in southwest China.Compared with the other three measures,its water productivity is the maximum(0.81 kg/m3),and the net income is the highest(1403$/hm^(2)).What’s more,it is simple,short time-consuming,and low cost,which is benefit to generalize the use of this restoration technology.

Design and Construction Challenges for a Hybrid Air and Thermal Energy Storage System Built in the Post-Mining Shaft

Compressed Air Energy Storage(CAES)is one of the methods that can solve the problems with intermittency and unpredictability of renewable energy sources.A side effect of air compression is a fact that a large amount of heat is generated which is usually wasted.In the development of CAES systems,the main challenge,apart from finding suitable places for storing compressed air,is to store this heat of compression process so that it can be used for heating the air directed to the expander at the discharging stage.The paper presents the concept of a hybrid compressed air and thermal energy storage(HCATES)system,which may be a beneficial solution in the context of the two mentioned challenges.Our novel concept assumes placing the thermal energy storage(TES)system based on the use of solid storage material in the volume of the post-mining shaft forms a sealed air pressure reservoir.Implementation of proposed systems within heavily industrialized agglomerations is a potential pathway for the revitalization of post-mine areas.The potential of energy capacity of such systems for the Upper Silesian region could exceed the value of 10 GWh.In the paper,the main construction challenges related to this concept are shown.The issues related to the possibility of storing air under high pressure in the shaft from the view of the rock mass strength are discussed.The overall concept of the TES system installation solution in the shaft barrel is presented.The basic problems related to heat storage in the cylindrical TES system with a non-standard structure of high slenderness are also discussed.The numerical calculations were based on the results of experiments performed on a laboratory stand,the geometry of which is to reflect the construction of a TES tank in a post-mining shaft.The article presents the results of numerical analysis showing the basic aspects related to difficulties that may occur at the construction stage and during the operation of the proposed HCATES system.The paper focuses on the methodology for determining the energy and exergy efficiency of a section of a Thermal Energy Storage tank,and presents the differences in the performance of this tank depending on its geometric dimensions,which are determined by the different sizes of mine shafts.

Numerical assessment of the influence of former mining activities and plasticity of rock mass on deformations of terrain surface

This paper presents the results of numerical simulations carried out to confirm the influence of former mining activities on deformation of the mining terrain.The assessment of deformation changes was carried out with the use of FLAC3 D program based on the finite difference method.Numerical calculations were carried out for the example of actual mining operations in seams 703/1-2 and 707/2 of‘‘Marcel"Coal Mine.Taking into account the influence of the model’s plastic features and the so-called activation of a higher occurring seam in conducted simulations enabled obtaining a very good description of the measured subsidence.Based on the results one may state that numerical model can be used to assess the influence of former mining activities and the direction of conducted exploitation on deformations of the mining terrain.These factors are not recognized by geometric-integral theories commonly used for predicting the influence of mining operations on the surface.The results presented in this paper confirm that the applied method of simulating the phenomenon of reactivation of post-mining goafs is correct.

Potential for carbon sequestration in reclaimed mine soil on reforested surface mining areas in Poland

Reclaimed mine soils (RMS) which develop on post-mining sites play significant role in Carbon sequestration in new ecosystems, especially in local range on areas disturbed by human activity. This study presents the potential for Carbon sequestration in RMS developing on 3 post sur- face mining areas in Poland (Central Europe) reforested with Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L). Research was conducted on waste heaps and quarry which accompany open cast lignite, sul- fur, and sand mining. Control plots were arrang- ed in managed pine forests on natural sites in the surrounding area. The results shows high Carbon accumulation in RMS, estimated on 16.77 Mg?ha-1 in poor (oligotrofic) soils on Quaternary sands on sand quarry and up to 65.03 Mg?ha-1 on external waste heap after Sulfur sur- face mining exploitation on Quaternary sands mixed with Tertiary clays. These results were very similar to natural forest soils on control plots. Potential rate of Carbon sequestration in RMS was estimated on 0.73 (on the poorest sa- ndy soils on quarry) to 2.17 Mg?ha-1?yr-1 (on potentially abundant sandy-clayish soils on Sulfur waste heap), and 5.26 Mg?ha-1?yr-1 (on Tertiary sands substrate soils on lignite mining waste heap). In conslusion the average Carbon accu- mulation in RMS was estimated on 41 Mg?ha-1 and Carbon sequestration rate was 1.45 Mg? ha-1?yr-1. According to the result of this study and range of post-mining areas reclaimed to forestry in Poland (ca 15000 ha) total Carbon accumulation in RMS was estimated on 615 × 103 Mg and potential Carbon sequestration rate in new ecosystems on 21.75 × 103 Mg?ha-1?yr-1. However, the main factors affecting Carbon sequestration and protection in RMS under tree stand were substrate, percentage of clay and silt sized fraction, in order to formulate guidelines for sustainable management of post-mining ec- osystem, further study must be continue for be- tter understanding.

Sustainable reclamation practices for a large surface coal mine in shortgrass prairie,semiarid environment(Wyoming,USA):case study

Sustainable reclamation practices for large surface coal mines in USA semiarid environment contribute to the quality of the environmental on a long term basis where environmental resources are protected for future generation.Land,after reclamation,must be suitable for the previous use of greatest economic or social values to the community area.In the semiarid climate of USA,non-developed land is mainly utilized for crops,grazing,and wildlife.Completion of various stages of the reclamation processes includes verifcation and approval of reclamation criteria and performance standards created by state agencies.The sustainable reclamation practices were investigated at the USA’s largest surface coal mine of the semiarid environment in Wyoming.These practices include building post-mining topography to the approximate original contour and reestablish a stable hydrologic system to drain surface water.All available spoil material is backflled and graded to achieve the post-mining topography which closely resembles the pre-mining topography.No overburden material or other coal waste material is left in stockpiles at the mine.Detailed planning until the end of mining,the knowledge of available volumes of suitable backfll material and soil is necessary for sustainable management practices.Diverse and permanent vegetation capable of stabilizing soil surfaces and capable of self-regeneration is established.Sustainable management of the reclamation efort is achieved by enforcement processes developed by the state and federal agencies.Monthly inspections of mining and reclamation operations and reviews of annual reports submitted by the operator help determine if the reclamation processes are occurring according to the permit plan.

Impact of past mining on public safety:seismicity in area of flooded abandoned coal Gardanne mine,France

This paper focuses on the impact of past mining on public safety.It emphasizes the need to understand the induced seismic hazard and consequently improve the post-mining management procedures and legislations,as many mining sites are located in proximity to populated areas.Due to many challenges and complexity of the post-mining environments,induced seismic hazard nowadays remains largely unknown.However,the return experience of several post-mining sites in recent decades have shown us that the mine flooding and/or degradation of mining works can lead to the stress perturbations,inducing the seismicity and the reactivation of the surrounding geological faults.Hence,it is important to advance the seismic monitor-ing and research of seismicity in flooded post-mining districts.As the number of mine closures worldwide is rising,it can be expected that flooding induced reactivation of the surrounding faults becomes a more often observed phenomenon.We present in this paper the experience of the abandoned flooded coal mine of Gardanne in France,which has been experiencing post-mining seismicity problems since its closure in 2010.We show the results of a recent study of seismic multiplets and clustering of seismic events,as well as their spatio-temporal activity compared to meteorological conditions.These results provide us new insights as well as lead to raising new questions on seismic sources and triggering mechanisms.