Degradation of dam reservoirs under the influence of mining subsidence in Upper Silesian Coal Basin, South Poland

Abstract

Underground mining of mineral resources, including coal, may lead to deformation of the terrain, with the greatest deformities occurring when the operation is carried out using the longwall top coal caving system. A deformation on the surface, known as a subsidence basin, can develop as a result of this system (Chudek & Sapicki, 2004;Kołodziejczyk & Wesołowski, 2010; Figure 1). The elevation is reduced from 0.7 to 0.8 of the thickness of the mined coal seam.There are numerous examples of this type of deformation in mining areas, as described by Gorol (2011), Michalczyk et al. (2007), Wójcik (2013 and Żmuda (1973). Examples of Polish dam reservoirs are not isolated in regard to this phenomenon because subsidence processes have also been noted in many mining other areas in the world in which exploitation is, or will be, conducted using the top coal caving system and which may experience similar geomorpho-

Water Reservoirs as a Driver of Anthropogenic Changes in Landscape and Transport Networks: The Czech Republic Experience

“…Historically, humans used landscape for agriculture and built settlements to connect them with linear transport infrastructures. Other anthropogenic activities that contributed significantly to landscape changes are the extraction of minerals and raw materials, the growth of heavy industry, and the exploitation of its energy potential [6,7].…”