Mining geohazards—land subsidence caused by the dewatering of opencast coal mines: The case study of the Amyntaio coal mine, Florina, Greece

Mining activities impact the nearby environment, causing the so-called mining hazards. The land subsidence phenomena caused by the dewatering of the mines are listed among the mining-induced catastrophic geohazards slowly affecting extensive areas around the opencasts. These large-scale geo-hazards are related to both hydrogeological and geotechnical factors, and they cause irreversible damages. The research presented aims to clarify all the components of the phenomenon and to establish the proper modelling procedure for the study of its mechanism. The site under investigation is the area extending at the west—northwest of the Amyntaio opencast coal mine at Florina Prefecture, Northern Greece. The overexploitation of the aquifers for the protection of the slopes turned the opencast to a large-diameter well, draining the surrounding area. The extensive land subsidence phenomena extend 3–4 km around the mine causing severe damages in two villages. The established results can be used for monitoring and predicting the impact of the particular mining hazard on the natural and human environment, without precluding further exploitation and mining of the energy resources.     

Comparison of water-level,extensometric, DInSAR and simulation data for quantification of subsidence in Murcia City (SE Spain)

Subsidence due to groundwater overexploitation has been recognized in the metropolitan area of Murcia (25 km²) in south-eastern Spain since the early 1990s. Previous published works have focused their attention on land subsidence that occurred during the drought period between 1995 and 2008. This work first analyzes the groundwater recovery that has occurred since 2008 and then determines the kind of associated ground deformation detected by the new extensometric data. Subsequently, subsidence time series are computed on 24 geotechnical boreholes scattered throughout the study area by means of a hydro-mechanical finite element code and a linear-elastic constitutive law. A spatio-temporal interpolation of the numerically modeled surface displacements is performed over the whole domain and compared with extensometers and DInSAR-derived displacement maps in two different periods: the drought period from 2004 to 2008, and the recovery period from 2008 to 2012. In spite of the limited information on the geomechanical parameters characterizing the modelled geological formations, the proposed approach is able to discriminate areas where the soils have an elastic behavior (small differences in the comparisons) or an elasto-plastic behavior (large differences in the comparisons). This zonation enhances the understanding of the subsidence phenomenon in Murcia City and could prevent, from a quantitatively point of view, future severe subsidence due to aquifer overexploitation.     

Investigation into subsidence hazards due to groundwater pumping from Aquifer II in Changzhou,China

This paper presents an investigation into increased deformation of Aquifer II caused by groundwater pumping from the aquifer in Changzhou, China. As groundwater levels of aquifers have been decreasing in recent decades due to uncontrolled water pumping, land subsidence is becoming a serious geohazard in Changzhou. Based on recently reported field data, the compression of aquitards has not increased compared to that of aquifers with the same scale of layer thickness. The Cosserat continuum model was adopted to analyse the observed phenomenon in this study. A classic Cauchy continuum model is also used for comparison. The comparison between these two models indicates that the proposed approach can interpret the increased deformation well, and the classic Cauchy continuum model underestimates the aquifer deformation as it does not consider shear displacement and macro-rotation. A discussion on the relationship between the groundwater level in the aquifer and subsidence is then undertaken. The results show that the severity of the annual subsidence is correlated with the variation in groundwater level in Aquifer II. To mitigate the subsidence hazards, countermeasures should be adopted to avoid the shear stress in aquifers which results from the high hydraulic gradient, by the appropriate allocation of pumping wells and by restricting groundwater withdrawal volume from each pumping operation.     

吴江盛泽地区建筑荷载和地下水开采对地面沉降的影响

为了准确分析建筑荷载和地下水开采对地面沉降的影响,为吴江盛泽地区科学防控地面沉降提供决策依据,基于比奥固结和地下水渗流理论,建立了建筑荷载和地下水开采与地面沉降三维全耦合有限元数值模型,分别模拟预测了在建筑荷载单独作用、地下水开采单独作用及建筑荷载和地下水开采叠加作用三种情况下,2015-09-01—2030-08-31盛泽地区逐年地面沉降变化趋势。结果表明,建筑荷载对盛泽地区地面沉降的影响大于地下水开采。第Ⅰ黏性土弱含水层和第I承压含水层分别为建筑荷载和地下水开采单独作用下的主压缩层,单层压缩量占比分别为43.04%和54.06%;第Ⅰ承压含水层及其上覆第Ⅰ黏性土弱含水层是二者叠加作用引发土体变形的主压缩层,其压缩量之和占总压缩量的71.30%。建筑荷载和地下水开采单独作用下引发的地面沉降量的线性叠加之和大于二者叠加作用下引发的地面沉降量,建筑荷载和地下水开采叠加作用引发的地面沉降具有耦合效应。     

上海地下水流场变化及其对地面沉降发展的影响

地下水开采导致的水位下降是含水层系统流场变化的关键,也是地面沉降形成与发展的重要因素。上海目前深部含水层开采日趋集中水位持续降低,浅部含水层大规模工程降：水以及邻省地下水开采等,使地下水渗流场出现新的变化,并对地面沉降控制造成不利影响。切实加强地下水管理,严格控制地下水位,是深化地面沉降有效防治的重要环节。     

The impact of groundwater recharge on land subsidence: a case study from the Cangzhou test area,Hebei Province,China

Groundwater recharge has become a method to prevent the expansion of land subsidence. A groundwater pumping–recharge test in Cangzhou city, Hebei Province (China), is taken as a representative example in order to monitor the changes in borehole water levels and land subsidence. The aquifer system consists of three main confined aquifers interspersed with silt and clays. Based on the lithology, the test and the Biot consolidation theory, a three-dimensional fully coupled numerical model is established to analyse the influence of groundwater recharge on the seepage field and displacement field. The results show that, due to recharge of the deeper confined aquifers (III1 and III2), the water levels rise rapidly and remain stable for a long time. By 163 days, the water-level rise is approximately 0.5 m, and the land also shows an obvious rebound. Therefore, groundwater recharge takes a long time to control land subsidence. Groundwater recharge controls the occurrence of land subsidence by increasing pore-water pressure and changing the characteristics of the aquifer system. However, the limitation is that the scope of impact of single-well recharge is limited, which is still a challenge to the governance of large areas.

     

中国地面沉降地质灾害区划方法与实践

由于地下水资源的不合理开发利用,我国已在众多地区存在地面沉降和地裂缝问题,为统筹全国地面沉降防治工作,开展易发程度区划是其重点工作之一。本文以第四纪地质、地下水及含水层特征、地下水开采情况作为划分依据,结合现状发育特点,拟定地面沉降和地裂缝易发区的划分方法,并提出防治对策建议。     

黄河三角洲地下水动态变化及其与地面沉降的关系

为了分析黄河三角洲地下水动态及其与地面沉降的关系, 利用多年地下水和地面沉降监测数据, 发现黄河三角洲广饶县和东营区的地下水动态变化剧烈且地面沉降严重, 含水层多处于超采状态, 浅、深层地下水降落漏斗先后出现.深层地下水降落漏斗中心水位下降速度达2~3m/a.近年来, 东营和广饶地面沉降漏斗中心沉降量和速率分别为155.1mm、28.2mm/a和356.0mm、64.7mm/a.借助GIS技术及数理统计法, 发现深层地下水降落漏斗与沉降漏斗空间耦合良好, 深层地下水位与地面高程呈线性正相关, 相关系数为0.92, 深层地下水过度开采已成为影响沉降的最根本因素.井灌区第三粘性压缩层成为地面沉降主要贡献层, 且深层地下水降落漏斗中心的地下水位已低于第三承压含水层临界水位, 沉降趋于严重.      

Overexploitation status of groundwater and induced geological hazards in China

During the process of urbanization and industrialization, groundwater has been extensively overexploited, with the direct result of continuously decreasing groundwater level, followed by the appearance of large scale of depression cones, which is furthermore followed by land subsidence, seawater intrusion, and increasing difficulties in subsequent groundwater exploitation. This paper makes an analysis on the geological disasters caused by overexploitation of groundwater. The consumption and overexploitation status of groundwater in representative regions in China is discussed first, with the distribution and development of depression cones elaborated the next. And the problems of land subsidence, seawater intrusion, and increasing difficulties caused by overexploitation of groundwater are analyzed at last. Results show that overexploitation of groundwater is positively related to economic development. Moreover, geological disasters such as land subsidence and seawater intrusion caused by long term of overexploitation also aggregate, posing threats, and losses to people’s lives and production. According to the analysis, the fundamental resolution for overexploitation of groundwater as well as consequential geological damages is to properly control city size and to utilize groundwater rationally and efficiently.     

高层建筑引发地面沉降模拟预测三维流固全耦合模型

为了准确预测由高层建筑引发土体应力场和渗流场变化而导致的地面沉降,以比奥固结理论为基础,结合土体非线性流变理论,将比奥固结理论中的本构关系拓展到黏弹塑性,并考虑了土体孔隙度、渗透系数及变形参数随有效应力的动态变化关系。以河北省沧州市为例,建立了沧州市高层建筑荷载、地下水渗流与土体变形三维流固全耦合数学模型。在对模型进行识别、验证的基础上,模拟预测了沧州市在地下水停采、仅存在高层建筑荷载的影响下,从2010年12月底到2025年12月底逐年的各含水层组地下水流场变化特征和地面沉降发展趋势。结果表明：沧州市由高层建筑荷载引发的最大地面沉降量为40.57 mm,最大地面沉降速率为2.7 mm/a,位于沧州市区。     

Land subsidence and earth fissures due to groundwater withdrawal in the Southern Yangtse Delta,China

Excessive extraction of groundwater has caused severe land subsidence and earth fissures in the Southern Yangtse Delta, China. Based on field data, the temporal and spatial distribution of land subsidence is investigated and the causes for earth fissures are analyzed. The areal distribution of the land subsidence is closely related to the cones of depression in the main exploited aquifers. The compaction of a hydrostratigraphic unit depends on its mechanical behavior, thickness, compressibility, and the piezometric level changing. The primary subsidence layers in Shanghai have been the first aquitard before 1990 and the third confined aquifer since then. But the second aquitard unit was the primary subsidence layer in Changzhou. Earth fissures, trending in several directions, occurred in the Husu tectonic zone. They were mainly caused by differential subsidence and horizontal displacement that resulted from tensile stress and shear stress in units. The majority of fissures in the study area are tensile.     

深部含水层黏弹塑固结模型及压密模拟

上海市曾遭受了严重的地面沉降灾害,主要由于浅部含水层开采引发浅部土层固结所致。之后采取了回灌浅部含水层并转向开采深部含水层的措施,地面沉降得到了有效控制。但21世纪初,通过水位及分层沉降监测,发现随着开采量增加,深部含水层也会成为主要压密土层。其变形呈现出显著的非线性压密特征,即使水位普遍抬升,压密仍然持续,开展其固结压密机理模型研究对地面沉降防治十分必要。传统太沙基理论认为砂土骨架是瞬时变形的,忽略了流变性本质,因此无法解释该现象。基于国内外学者的研究,考虑了前期固结压力前后流变性的差异,建立了深部含水层黏弹塑固结压密模型。通过试验获取了相关参数,结合塘桥F16分层标监测结果,对第四含水层长期压密变形进行了模拟。模拟结果很好地反映了含水层长期非线性压密行为,研究结果对指导防治地面沉降有实际意义。     

Characterization of land subsidence induced by groundwater withdrawals in Su-Xi-Chang area, China

Su-Xi-Chang area is one of the typical regions in China which suffers from severe land subsidence. Various tools of field monitoring were integrated to study the characteristics and mechanisms of land subsidence in this region. The occurrence and the development of the land subsidence in this region are strongly related to the groundwater pumping both in time and space. The main consolidation layers are the soft mud layers; however, the compressibility of the confined sandy layers should not be ignored. The second and third confined aquifers contributed more than 30% of total subsidence. Meanwhile, irrecoverable deformations were also observed in the sandy layers. Different sandy layers deform diversely under different stress conditions. Some have the elastic feature. But the soil strata, including both sandy layers and clayey layers, located in the center of the groundwater level depression cone exhibited obvious viscous mechanical behavior which caused the common lag phenomenon. The sand composition (mingled with small clay particles or interbeds) and sand rheology are the two main reasons for the lag phenomena in sandy layers. A series of laboratory tests for modeling the effective stress changes due to groundwater withdrawals, were conducted to investigate the mechanism of the lag phenomenon. Based on the test results, the relationship of stress–strain–time for saturated sands is obtained; and it could be expressed as power functions. The results also showed that the compression of the sandy layers was time dependent, and its deformation could be remarkable. When establishing land subsidence model, the deformation for the similar soil formation could be elastic, visco-elastic and even visco-elastic–plastic, because of the different groundwater level fluctuation experienced.     

A new GIS-based data mining technique using an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) and k-fold cross-validation approach for land subsidence susceptibility mapping

In this paper, we evaluate the predictive performance of an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) using six different membership functions (MF). In combination with a geographic information system (GIS), ANFIS was used for land subsidence susceptibility mapping (LSSM) in the Marand plain, northwest Iran. This area is prone to droughts and low groundwater levels and subsequent land subsidence damages. Therefore, a land subsidence inventory database was created from an extensive field survey. Areas of land subsidence or areas showing initial signs of subsidence were used for training, while one-third of inventory database were reserved for testing and validation. The inventory database randomly divided into three different folds of the same size. One of the folds was chosen for testing and validation. Other two folds was used for training. This process repeated for every fold in the inventory dataset. Thereafter, land subsidence related factors, such as hydrological and topographical factors, were prepared as GIS layers. Areas susceptible to land subsidence were then analyzed using the ANFIS approach, and land subsidence susceptibility maps were created, whereby six different MFs were applied. Lastly, the results derived from each MF were validated with those areas of the land subsidence database that were not used for training. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves were drawn for all LSSMs, and the areas under the curves were calculated. The ROC analyses for the six LSSMs yielded very high prediction values for two out of the six methods, namely the difference of DsigMF (0.958) and GaussMF (0.951). The integration of ANFIS and GIS generally led to high LSSM prediction accuracies. This study demonstrated that the choice of training dataset and the MF significantly affects the results.     

浅层地下水人工回灌应用于上海市工程性地面沉降防治的试验研究

上海地面沉降主要由过量开采地下水资源和大规模工程建设等因素共同影响,工程性地面沉降引起的地面沉降漏斗严重影响了周边地区生命线工程的建设及运营安全。通过开展试验研究,将深部承压含水层中应用成熟的地下水人工回灌技术引入浅部含水层中,但由于浅部含水层砂层结构及水动力条件与深部含水层差异较大,回灌工艺及方法也存在差异。本次试验工作中,改进了地下水人工回灌工艺流程,并通过同步地面形变监测分析了浅层地下水人工回灌对控制地面沉降的作用效果。结合上海地区实际地层特征以及各种回灌工艺的实际效果,评价了浅层地下水人工回灌技术在防治工程型地面沉降中推广应用的可行性及适用性。     

Survey of land subsidence – case study: The land subsidence formation in artificial recharge ponds at South Hamadan Power Plant,northwest of Iran

Journal of Earth System Science - The artificial recharge is a technique of aquifer conservation for land subsidence. But in this article, the phenomenon of land subsidence and the resulting cracks...     

Unique documentation,analysis of origin and development of an undrained depression in a subsidence basin caused by underground coal mining (Kozinec,Czech Republic)

This article aims to explain and demonstrate the origin and development of a subsidence basin caused by coal mining as well as to point out important aspects of this phenomenon in engineering geology. Engineering geology needs to deal with a number of issues related to the origin and development of subsidence basins in areas affected by deep coal mining. An interesting case study from the Upper-Silesian Basin in the northeast of the Czech Republic near the Polish border is presented in this paper. There is a clear time chronological succession in the ground surface changes manifested by a ground subsidence gradation, both in their absolute values as well as in their spatial distribution. The phenomenon is documented by aerial photo time series, which optimally depict the origin and development of the subsidence. In the study area, there are changes in the landscape elements and it is essential to be considered in future land use plans. The marginal conditions of the Quaternary geological structure and hydrogeological conditions are responsible for an unconfined aquifer which manifests there as a water body in an undrained depression in the course of the ground subsidence.     

利用城市雨水回灌地下水防治地面沉降技术方法探讨

阐述城市化快速发展日益突显的城市雨水问题与地下水超采引起地面沉降危害,在对城市雨水收集处理进行水质分析基础上,探讨城市雨水直接回灌浅层含水层在地面沉降防治中的利用潜力和意义.     

天津市地面沉降的特征及其危害

天津是我国北方地面沉降最严重的城市之一,40余年的持续沉降不仅直接造成对安全高程、市政基础设施、房屋等建筑物的破坏,而且还通过安全高程的损失加剧了其他自然灾害的发生,使社会经济遭受严重损失.正确认识天津市地面沉降的特点及其危害,有利于控沉部门制定科学而有效的地面沉降减灾防灾政策和措施.基于对地面沉降所造成的危害分析和阐述,认为不合理开发地下流体资源是导致天津市地面沉降的主要原因,并提出相应预防和治理地面沉降的对策.     

某地下空间承压含水层抽水试验及成果分析

由于地下水突涌风险,地下空间在施工作业中有必要通过抽水试验确定承压含水层的水文地质参数。依据勘察报告的初步评价,基坑开挖15.5m时,场地内第⑦1层承压含水层有可能产生突涌,为确保工程安全施工,需开挖前进行承压含水层抽水试验,取得场地承压含水层水文地质参数及降水引起的沉降特征,为地下空间设计和施工提供可靠依据。本次布设抽水井、观测井、分层沉降标组、孔隙水压力观测孔及地面沉降观测点,依据抽水试验技术要求获取渗透系数、抽水影响半径等相关水文地质参数。最后,针对工程场地内承压水情况及特点进行分析,提出基坑开挖时的承压水降压建议方案。