Abstract: The present paper is to study the relationship between vegetation and groundwater,and the constrains on coal mining in ecologically fragile mining area. A field survey was carried out to determine the general rules of vegeta- tion community succession,along with the increase of depth to groundwater table (DGT) in a typical region. Based on the remote sensing data and DGT data before mining,a statistical relationship between the normalized difference vege- tation index (NDVI) and DGT was established in Yushenfu coal mining area. The results showed that the vegetation has a zonal characteristic as DGT increasing,and the most suitable DGT for vegetation is 0 -4. 0 m,the smaller the DGT,the more sensitive the vegetation. Combined with the hydrological condition and the relationship between vegeta- tion and groundwater,the Yushenfu coal mining area could be divided into three parts:vegetation constraint region, groundwater constraint region and non-constrained region. It is in the vegetation constraint region that coal mining will cause extensive damage to vegetation. As the DGT dramatically declined,the NDVI improved in large extent by 2014, to some extent,this was due to the present mining mainly located in non-constrained region. Mine planning and coal mining must pay attention to the relationship of vegetation and groundwater in ecologically fragile mining area.