A Study on Types and Causes of Land Desertification in the Coal Mining Area of Shanxi Province

摘要

We investigated and analysed the causes, degree, scope, distribution, landslide and desertification of landslide caused by coal mining in Shanxi Province. The investigation results indicate that the total area of land desertification caused by coal mining was 1 152 km2 from 1999 to 2004, including 1 113.8 km2 of collapsed area, 15.2 km2 of abandoned material area and 23.0 km2 of open-cast coal mining. The analysis shows that the form, scale, degree and trend of land surface collapse are related to factors such as methods of coal mining, thickness and depth of coal extraction, topography and general configuration of the earth's surface, dip angle of coal seam, characteristics of cover rock above coal seam, geological structure, and properties of hydrological geology.