Properties of ecological environment damage and their mechanism of restoration in arid and semi-arid coal mining area of western China

The focus of coal development in China has been strategically shifted westward. That realize green mining of coal resources and coordinated ecological development becomes one of the important measures to ensure national energy security. Most of the coal seams in the western region are buried shallowly, with thin overlying bedrock and thick coal seams, which is beneficial for large-scale underground mining or open-pit mining. However, the climate in the region is arid with little rainfall and fragile ecological conditions, which caused significant damage to the mining area and surrounding ecological environment on a large scale and with high intensity. Due to the unclear understanding of the evolution mechanism of ecological damage during the mining process and the post mining restoration mechanism, there is no mature restoration theory and method to guide it, which has become a major challenge restricting the high-quality development of coal in the region. We are focuse on the above-mentioned difficulties, which consider accurately surveying the geological and hydrogeological conditions and the ecological evolution characteristics of the entire coal mining cycle working face, that be helpful for elucidating the mechanism of overlying soil and rock damage caused by mining, the law of water resource loss and accumulation and cyclic transportation, the mechanism of ecological damage evolution and bearing capacity, and revealing the soil and rock layers, water resource circulation, and mechanism of ecological self-adaption in the post-mining area. By using the plant-microbial combination restoration method, a water-soil ecological three-dimensional coupling remediation theory was constructed for the synergy between artificial and natural restoration in underground and open-pit mines, and a new thinking on the mechanism of ecological restoration was proposed. That development of fissures is like loosening soil in farmland becomes a new opportunity for ecological restoration in shallow buried deep mining area, which promote the redistribution of water-soil-life. Meanwhile, utilizing microbial remediation technology to promote the coordinated forward direction development of water retention-quality improvement-capacity enhancement, practicing the thinking of developing “golden mountains and silver hills” and recreating “green mountains and clear waters” in the western fragile ecological area.