Land Use Dynamic Evolution and Driving Factors of Typical Open-Pit Coal Mines in Inner Mongolia

Abstract

Although coal is difficult to replace in the short term, the large-scale production and consumption of coal have significant impacts on the ecological environment. The severe disturbances, such as land excavation and occupation, that accompany the mining of mineral resources have caused dramatic changes in land cover and a significant pressure on the sensitive and fragile ecological environment. To analyze the temporal and spatial evolution trends and the differences in land use in different typical mining areas in Inner Mongolia, as well as the evaluation system and driving mechanisms of land use evolution, this study takes the typical open-pit coal mines in Inner Mongolia as the research objects and, based on the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform, analyzes the dynamic evolution characteristics and driving factors of land use in typical open-pit coal mines in Inner Mongolia from 2001 to 2020. The change trend of land use in typical open-pit mining areas in Inner Mongolia for the past 20 years is obvious, with the highest fluctuations for grassland, mining land, cropland, and residential/industrial land. Land use in the open-pit coal mining area is greatly affected by mining factors. From the perspective of spatial variation, the most important driving factor is the distance from national roads and railways, followed by the annual average temperature and annual average precipitation and topographical conditions, such as elevation. In terms of policy, land reclamation and ecological restoration in mining areas have a positive impact on land use change. Improving the mechanism for environmental compensation in mining areas can promote the efficient and rational use of mining areas and the protection of ecosystems.

Progress of Mine Land Reclamation and Ecological Restoration Research Based on Bibliometric Analysis

“…The mining industry is a large contributor to the global economy and has been developing since the industrial revolution [1]. The mining of metal minerals, non-metallic minerals, and organic minerals leads to many ecological and environmental problems, for example, land excavation and occupation, surface subsidence, soil erosion, desertification, land pollution, and biodiversity loss [2,3]. Open-pit mining can cause drastic disturbances to regional ecosystem and soil properties [4], resulting in a significant loss of soil nutrients (soil organic carbon, total nitrogen) [5].…”

Effects of Land Reclamation on Soil Bacterial Community and Potential Functions in Bauxite Mining Area

“…Bauxite deposits formed on the paleokarstic surfaces of carbonates, which are considered carbonate bauxite [ 2 , 3 ], are often located 1–2 m below the surface, and therefore they are usually mined by opencast mining (strip mining) [ 3 ]. The large-scale opencast mining process directly destroys surface rock layers and vegetation [ 4 ], leading to changes in the physical structure and loss of soil organic matter [ 5 ], drastically reducing the soil nutrient contents [ 6 ] and causing serious ecological damage [ 7 ]. At the same time, the bauxite mining process occupies a large number of cultivated lands.…”