Prediction of surface subsidence and deformations due to the underground coal mining

Abstract

Throughout its historical development, mining has faced the problem of moral and material responsibility due to various types of endangerment and damage to the environment. As a result of the underground coal exploitation, a movement of the rock massif above the coal seam, and changes on the terrain surface due to the process of massif stabilizing take place. The process occurs in space and time, from the moment of balance disturbance in the massif, i.e., the beginning of excavation, during excavation, and after the final excavation of deposit, when the equilibrium state is reestablished in the massif. The character and intensity of these movements and principles according to which they are performed, depend on numerous natural and mining-technological conditions, and are specific to each individual coal deposit. Deformations on the terrain surface in the sinkhole occur in the horizontal and vertical directions. Their values serve to determine the vulnerability level of individual objects on the terrain surface. On the basis of the Patarić-Stojanović stochastic method for the predictive subsidence and deformations calculation, an original MITSOUKO program package, supported by the spatial analyses in the Geographic Information System (GIS), was designed. A case study in Sladaja village influenced by the underground exploitation in the coal mine "Rembas"-Resavica, one of the biggest Serbian coal mines, has been chosen. The data processed in the GIS provided determining the module, sense, and direction of the displacements, sinking velocity, and possible effects of subsidence on facilities.

Keywords

• underground coal mining
• ground surface movements
• stochastic theory
• gis
• spatial analysis