Digital twin of mine ecological environment: Connotation, framework and key technologies

Under the background of dual-carbon national strategy and the widespread application of new-generation information technologies, systematization, precision, and intellectualization are the important development directions for the governance of mine ecological environment. Informatization of the governance of mine ecological environment in China has been carried out in a relatively rich and long-term way, but there are still problems such as lack of comprehensive monitoring system, inaccurate modeling of ecological evolution, ecological governance relying on expert experience, and no decision-making tools on informatization. Accordingly, in this study, the digital twin of mine ecological environment (DTME) is proposed, and its general framework, functional features and key technologies for system construction are introduced. The DTME is formally defined as a twin system of the physical mine ecosystem in virtual space by mapping three aspects: ecological elements, evolutionary processes, and impact mechanisms. The DTME utilizes spaceborne, airborne, and ground multi-source monitoring devices to dynamically detect the changes of ecological elements in the mine area, and constructs the complex driving models of the ecological evolution based on the artificial intelligence. The DTME supports the whole process of the scientific governance of mine ecological environment through program optimization or feedback control. Furthermore, the general framework of the DTME is introduced, including physical mine ecological environment (physical entity), monitoring terminal, twin data, information link, cloud-edge-terminal service, virtual mine ecological environment (virtual entity), and control terminal. Guided by real-life application requirements, the DTME can achieve mine ecological quality dynamic monitoring and health examination, mine ecological evolution simulation and impact factor analysis, prediction of mine ecological changes, mine ecological risk warning, intelligent grading and zoning of ecological restoration, mine ecological restoration effect evaluation, and mine ecological environment supervision. Finally, it is illustrated that the construction of the digital twin system of mine ecological environment involves four key technologies: digital base of mine ecosystem, digital scene of mine ecosystem, simulation and prediction of mine ecological evolution, and intelligent decision of mine ecological governance. The application of DTME can support the sensing, representation, monitoring, simulation, emulation, prediction, and control of the whole governance process of mine ecological environment, which is promising to significantly improve the quality and efficiency of governance.