Land reclamation requirements and their estimated effects on the coal industry

This paper develops a model of the bituminous coal industry that is then used to simulate the price, output, and employment effects of land reclamation requirements in strip mining (other things equal). Our main conclusion is that a requirement to return strip-mined land to its approximate original contour and vegetative cover would have only slight effects on either sector of the industry. We estimate that such a requirement, had it been imposed in 1971, would have decreased strip-mining employment and output by 2.370, while inducing an increase in underground employment more than sufficient to offset these job losses.     

Ecosystem development and natural succession in surface coal mine reclamation

Biotic and abiotic factors involved in surface coal mine reclamation were evaluated on 81 mine sites in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, USA. Soil moisture and organic content were the two most important factors in determining the establishment and growth of vegetation on mined lands. Soil bacteria and fungi populations were also related to these soil conditions, and soil micro-organisms were important in the decomposition of organic materials as well as factors in the rate and type of natural succession occurring on these lands. The succession of native plant species increases the density and stability of plant communities on mined lands. The importance of natural succession in mined-land reclamation and the use of these lands by wildlife is discussed.Supported by Grant-In-Aid, Natural Geographic Society.     

徐州煤矿混推复垦区土壤重金属分布特征及潜在风险评价

以徐州煤矿混推复垦区为研究对象,采用Tessier连续提取法,对该复垦区土壤Zn、Pb、Ni、Mn、Cu、Cr等6种重金属含量进行分析和风险评价.结果表明,除Cr外,复垦区土壤Zn、Pb、Ni、Mn和Cu的含量均大于当地土壤背景值,但均未超过国家土壤环境质量二级标准,不同复垦年限下土壤重金属含量差异较大,Zn、Mn总体上随复垦年限延长,积累越明显.形态分析表明,Pb和Mn以铁锰氧化物结合态为主;Zn、Ni、Cu和Cr以残渣态为主.徐州煤矿复垦区土壤重金属的生物可利用系数(BF)的平均值大小为MnPbCuZnCrNi.各重金属的生态风险程度大小为PbCuNiMnCrZn.徐州煤矿复垦区土壤重金属的潜在生态风险指数范围是16.71—25.94,平均值为21.56,属于轻微生态危害.不同复垦年限下土壤重金属的综合潜在生态风险指数大小为1997年复垦2006年复垦1987年复垦2010年复垦塌陷未复垦未塌陷,各复垦年限下土壤重金属均属于轻微生态风险.     

Soil and plant characteristics as determining factors in site selection for surface coal mine reclamation

Four vegetative associations occur on surface mines located in Mercer County, Pennsylvania. Seventeen different species of grasses and legumes and 30 different species of trees and shrubs were evaluated for their ability to become established and control erosion on surface mines. The amount of organic matter and soil moisture are the principle factors regulating the establishment of vegetative cover on surface mines. Those species possessing a fibrous root system are better able to adapt for erosion control than tap rooted species. Likewise, shrubs such as bristley locust (Robina hispida) and Silver Bush or Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) that will produce shoots when a root becomes exposed due to erosion are better adapted for erosion control than other species. The methods and species utilized during reclamation will determine, at least in part, the future use of the land and should establish conditions for natural succession to occur.This study was supported by funds from the National Geographical Society and the Office of Water Resources, U.S. Department of Interior.     

黄土高原矿区土壤细菌群落对地表塌陷和土地复垦的响应

中国一半的煤炭生产能力集中于生态脆弱的黄土高原,采矿活动进一步加剧了当地生态环境恶化,尤其是土壤退化.微生物是土壤物质转化的动力,对外界干扰十分敏感,厘清其变化对生态恢复和治理尤为重要.为此,本研究以黄土高原大柳塔煤矿及黑岱沟煤矿为对象,利用高通量测序技术和分子生态网络分析方法,揭示土壤细菌群落多样性及不同活动影响下土壤细菌群落之间的联系与差异.结果表明,不同活动对土壤理化性状影响显著,塌陷区有机质、速效磷、速效钾呈显著性下降(P0.05),复垦区土壤有机质、水分、pH和电导率则显著增加(P0.05),塌陷对土壤理化性状产生了抑制作用,复垦呈现促进作用.不同活动对土壤细菌群落产生不同的影响,塌陷区多样性指数降低了约20%,复垦则多样性指数增加了63%,但塌陷区、复垦区优势菌门保持一致.不同活动对土壤细菌分子生态网络的影响迥异:塌陷后分子生态网络趋于复杂,网络连接数及互作关系明显增强;复垦后则生态网络模块增加,模块内部趋于简单.为应对地表塌陷和土地复垦,土壤细菌往往改变菌种间关系作适应性变化.塌陷更多地促进相互合作以适应养分的贫瘠,复垦则促进模块数增加并趋于合作以获取更多的资源.     

Evaluating the eco-environment benefit of land reclamation in the dump of an opencast coal mine

Land reclamation significantly affects the ecological and environmental conditions of mining areas. However, quantifying the exact effects is difficult because of the lack of reliable data. The estimation of eco-environment benefit contributes to clarify the ecological and environmental changes caused by land reclamation and to provide useful information for policy-makers concerned with sustainable development. The aim of this study is to investigate variations in eco-environment benefit in response to land use changes during land reclamation. The West dump, one of the earliest regions to implement ecological restoration in Liaoning Province, is selected as the study area. The widely used methods for eco-environment benefits based on the land use change were proposed and applied to the West dump in 2004, 2009, and 2014. The total eco-environment benefits in study areas were 0.98 million dollars in 2004, 1.39 million dollars in 2009, and 1.43 million dollars in 2014, with an increase of 0.41 million dollars from 2004 to 2009 mainly because of the increasing areas of artificial woodland and reclaimed cropland. The combined eco-environment benefits of artificial woodland, improved grassland, and reclaimed cropland were over 90% of the total benefits. Soil formation and protection, biodiversity protection, and gas regulation were the top three functions with high eco-environment benefits, contributing about half of the total eco-environment benefits. The results suggest that future studies estimating eco-environment benefits should pay more attention to ecosystems in fragile ecological regions where various human interferences happen frequently. All of the abovementioned results made the techniques of estimation of the eco-environment benefit of land reclamation are more meaningful in guiding the future exploitation and reclamation of mining areas.     

Planning and evaluating cropland reclamation after stripmining in North Dakota

Effective cropland reclamation planning must be based upon an understanding of the soil characteristics and properties that contribute to the development of productive soils. Effective use of available soil and overburden materials require the utilization of all available knowledge about processes that cause changes in soil properties. Adequate premine characterization of soil and overburden materials is a prerequisite for good planning. Proper postmine topographic design is critical for maximizing water infiltration and retention. Topsoil must be replaced on all reclaimed soils, but the depth of replacement of subsoil depends upon the texture and soluble salt and/or sodium content of the underlying spoil. Reclamation success should be evaluated by relating yields to properties of the reclaimed soils; comparison with yields from nearby reference areas of undisturbed soils is not an acceptable method.Contribution from Land Reclamation Research Center, North Dakota State University, Mandan.Superintendent and Research Associates, respectively.     

Soil compaction in topsoil replacement during mining reclamation

Current U.S. mining regulations require revegetation in reclaiming surface mines. Excessive soil compaction can be an impediment to successful revegetation in poor soil conditions common to Eastern U.S. coal mine sites. A field study was performed to determine the bulk densities of soils that had been spread by either bulldozers or scrapers at a strip mine site. Moisture-density relationships for the soils were determined from the field samples. These were compared with samples compacted by the Standard Proctor compaction test. The results of the study indicate that the degree of compaction, could be lessened through proper soil handling procedures.     

Pasture and hayland: Measures of reclamation success

Several characteristics of a reclaimed and two unmined grasslands used for tame pastureland in North Dakota were measured over the past eight years. Characteristics included productivity (vegetation and animal), ground cover and soil loss, species composition and numbers, and seasonality. Each characteristic is discussed as it relates to its value as a measure of reclamation success. In our view, vegetative productivity and ground cover provide an appropriate and adequate measure to document reclamation success for the postmine use of pasture and occasional hay production.     

关于有序填海的思路与方法

填海造陆在扩展土地和发展经济的同时也对海岸带环境造成了不利影响。将有序人类活动贯穿于整个填海造陆过程,通过科学合理的规划、组织和实施而进行有序填海,从而增加填海造陆的积极效应,限制其破坏性影响,是实现海岸带可持续发展的必由之路。整体性、矛盾论、动态平衡和因地制宜是有序填海的基本观点。要实现有序填海,首先必须在对填海造陆的效益和损失进行科学评价的基础上进行可行性论证,然后制定不同尺度的填海规划并确定填海造陆的适宜规模,最后利用一系列有效方法加以实施,包括：维护海岸带自然系统功能、完善监督管理制度、实行生态补偿与生态系统重建、加速改良填海区环境等。     

Environmental problems of coal production in the United Kingdom with particular reference to the Yorkshire coalfield

This paper reviews the environmental problems associated with the coal-mining industry on the Yorkshire coalfield. The main environmental problems are identified as being caused by:

1. The need to dispose of large quantities of colliery waste or ‘spoil’, in an environmentally acceptable manner.
2. Derelict and despoiled land, including the problems caused by the re-working of old tips for their coal content.
3. Opencast coal mining.
4. Subsidence.
5. Transportation of coal and coal waste.

These problems are reviewed in the context of the role of coal in meeting the United Kingdom's energy needs and the framework of environmental control within which the coal-mining industry has to operate. Particular stress is laid on the fact that the Yorkshire coalfield, as with the majority of coalfields, is an old one with a legacy of inherited dereliction. Whilst modernisation of the mining industry is proceeding there have not been parallel developments put in hand to cope with the changing nature of the environmental problems resulting from the modernisation of the industry. Particular stress is placed on the need to dispose of the greatly increased quantities of spoil now being produced.     

The German Wadden Sea coast: reclamation and environmental protection

Why did the reclamation of tidal marshes along the German Wadden Sea coast continue until the 1990s while the country is known for its awareness of the need for environmental protection? A study of the recently adopted reclamation policy in Schleswig-Holstein indicates that since the 1960s, the primary objective of embankments along the coast has been for coastal defence. While focusing their attention on this policy from the late 1970s, environmentalists have been objecting against any reclamation projects. Their main argument has been the ecological richness of the tidal marshes and the negative effects of embankments on the Wadden Sea. During the 1990s, objections from environmentalists, together with the fruition of the Coastal Defence Plan, recent economic factors, new legislation and sea level rise have led to a gradual decline of reclamation projects along the German Wadden Sea coast.     

Quantitative analysis of microplastics in coastal tidal-flat reclamation in Dongtai,China

• Reclamation projects are important disturbances on microplastic risk in coasts. • Tidal-flat reclamation area is a large storage medium for sedimentary microplastics. • Aging and distribution features of soil microplastics show spatial heterogeneity. • Coastal weathered engineering geotextiles are a significant threat to marine health. Coastal tidal flats have received considerable attention in recent years, as they provide a direct channel for the discharge of terrestrial microplastics into the ocean. Land reclamation is occurring increasingly frequently in coastal tidal-flats; however, the environmental impacts of these activities remain unclear. Therefore, this pioneering study assessed the microplastic emission characteristics of reclamation geotextiles and performed a risk assessment accordingly. Morphological characterization of geotextile samples collected from five sites in Dongtai, China, provided evidence of sedimentary weathering. Based on several assumptions, the average abundance of microplastics in soil covered by geotextiles was estimated to reach 349±137 particles/kg dry weight, with the total microplastic load in the reclaimed area estimated to be 20.67±8.06 t. Compared with previous studies, this research demonstrates that coastal reclamation areas store a high concentration of microplastics, aggravating marine microplastic pollution. Moreover, conditional fragmentation model results revealed that the weathering and distribution characteristics of soil microplastics in coastal tidal-flat areas exhibit spatial heterogeneity, being more easily affected by natural factors (such as tides) than those in inland areas. As a result of tides, the annual discharge of geotextile-originating microplastics from the studied areas into the ocean was approximately 2465.52±960.77 t. These findings prove that the risks posed by engineering-microplastics are significant, indicating that further investigations are required on the precise laws of transfer and migration, as well as the toxicity mechanisms, in order to improve analytical techniques and policies in this field.     

Environmental problems of coal production in the federal republic of of germany with particular reference to to the Ruhr

In 1979 it was noted that the production of deep-mined coal in the Federal Republic of Germany, including the Ruhr area, has risen once again. Since the beginning of the sixties the convenient source of both energy and raw material, oil, has been responsible for the falling levels of coal production in the Ruhr, to almost one half of peak production in 1956. Not much would have been needed to give up the entire troublesome and expensive process of deep coal mining in the Federal Republic in favour of the then cheap and bountiful oil. Only lignite managed to maintain a more or less steady annual production rate due to the direct conversion into electricity of a major part of its production at the site of extraction. Since the limitations and uncertainties governing the supply of crude oil have now been clearly exposed, the illusions about oil have begun to fade, and as a result confidence in our indigenous supplies of energy and raw material resources has been restored. What, however, are the implications of this revival of home-produced energy and raw material, which are not without problems both when produced and when consumed for the region in which they are extracted and brought to the surface, and where, to a large extent, the processing takes place? The region benefits from employment and investment, and in turn offers its resources (labour, land, water, air) inasmuch as past development has left them available for future development. But is the region to be covered with even more ‘honourable’ scars? In 1980, 87 million tonnes of deep mined coal were produced in the Federal Republic of Germany which resulted in roughly the same amount of minestone (spoil). Approximately 600 km² of densely populated area in the Ruhr district was already acquiring artificial drainage due to subsidence. Coking plants and old coal-based stations fired with deep mined coal pollute air and water. Lignite production in 1980 in the Federal Republic of Germany — which was almost entirely obtained by opencast mining — amounted to 130 million tonnes. To achieve this an additional 445×10⁶m³ of overburden had to be shifted. Already in 1977 in the Rhineland between Cologne, Dusseldorf and Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle), 522 km² of mainly good agricultural land was acquired under compulsory purchase order for lignite mining. Villages, roads, rail and waterways were and continue to be re-routed and re-sited. The direct conversion of lignite into electricity produces emission and spreads pollution. Now, it is not only the people of the Ruhr area, the largest industrial conurbation in Europe, that have become sensitive to the impact of mining upon their environment. In all industrial countries it has been learned that those things which cannot be replaced, i.e. environment, are not always being valued by the free market at a price which represents the value they may have for the individual and possibly should have for all of us. Today the need for mining is hardly being questioned any more but people are voicing their opinion as to what is a just price to be paid. The citizen of the Ruhr, for instance, no longer accepts that the specific environmental impacts caused by deep coal mining, which produces a commodity wanted by the entire nation, should be borne solely at the place where it is produced and by the people who happen to live there. He demands that such burdens are borne by everybody who enjoys the benefits. Clear political ideas must be developed and made know as to how much we value home-produced energy sources, what proportion of the resulting burdens the country is willing to bear and how they are to be distributed fairly. There are many methods and technical means by which the burdens of the mining and industrial regions can be minimised, by which damage can be repaired and derelict areas reclaimed. The application of such means must be safeguarded by early planning and sufficient finanacing so that the exploitation of one resource will not result in other resources being lost.     

Extraction,reclamation and after use at gravel quarries near Canterbury,Kent

A study of the extraction, reclamation and after use of flood plain gravel quarries between Bagham and Thannington, south west of Canterbury in Kent, South-east England, was made, based on a review of the literature and field work. The area represents a linear extension of the urban fringe of Canterbury. Gravel production has been the most significant industry in terms of environmental impact over the last thirty years, and the result of such activity has been the creation of an extensive area of lakes and wetland habitats. Present and future gravel production will more than double the existing lakes and wetlands areas. It is suggested that, in terms of land use, this man-made environment is best suited for water-based recreation and that three zones should be recognised for an amenity park, angling and wildlife respectively. Further mineral production between Ashford and Bagham may mean a reappraisal of the proposed water resource use, particularly for wildlife. As a result of this study, attention is drawn to the spatial relationships between recreational demand groups and flood plain location with respect to the urban centre and to each other.     

深圳市蛇口半岛人工填海及其城市热岛效应分析

为满足日益增长的土地需求,人工填海已成为目前世界范围内沿海地区城市空间扩张的主要方式。深圳作为中国首批经济特区和改革开放先锋,在经历30多年经济高速发展和城市快速变迁后,已由过去的小渔村发展为现代化国际大都市,与此同时,也开展了大量人工填海工程。城市热岛效应,作为城市热环境评价的重要指标,随着人工填海的快速推进会愈发明显,从而会导致城市热环境和微气候改变,加剧大气污染,严重影响着城市人居生态环境。然而,针对人工填海对城市热岛效应影响的具体研究并不多见。基于TM及ETM+遥感数据,对深圳市蛇口半岛人工填海区域的城市扩张及其热岛效应进行了分析,并对该区域地表温度的变化与归一化植被指数(NDVI)的关系进行了探讨,以期为沿海地区城市热环境的研究和空间地理的合理规划提供参考。结果表明,①该区域1999年至2009年间人工填海面积增加近16 km2,相当于1999年整个蛇口半岛面积的1/3。②利用城市热岛效应表达模型对1999年、2009年蛇口半岛的热岛分布等级进行了分析。研究表明,2009年热岛区域较1999年显著扩张,绿岛面积显著减少,弱热岛、中等热岛、强热岛面积均有不同程度地增长。强热岛正向变化最显著,2009年的强热岛面积相较于1999年增加了5.5倍,中等热岛的扩张面积也超过了1999年的4倍。③热岛扩张区域与人工填海增加区域高度吻合,可见人工填海工程显著增强了城市的热岛效应。④蛇口半岛区域地表温度与植被指数NDVI呈现显著负相关(P<0.01)。地表温度在蛇口半岛两侧的人工填海区形成高值区,在南山和赤湾山植被覆盖指数较高的区域形成低值区,而城市建筑群居中。     

失地农民土地权益流失的经济学分析

城市扩张速度的加快带来越来越多的农民丧失土地,从而引发的农民土地权益流失．这与我国“一切与农业为本,一切为农民着想”的扶农政策想违背,为解决这一问题,笔者从经济学角度探讨失地农民土地权益流失的原因,图1,参5．     

坝上地区土地利用与覆被变化对土壤养分的影响

坝上地区是典型的农牧交错带 ,生态环境十分脆弱。研究表明 ,解放后 ,该区土地利用与土地覆被状况经历了多次反复的变动。 2 0世纪 80年代以前 ,草地大规模改变为旱地 ,部分改为林地 ;90年代初 ,旱地又逐步被改为草地、林地和水田使用。土地利用与土地覆被的变化引起土壤中有机质、全N、全P、全K、碱解N以及有效态P、K、B、Mo、Mn、Zn、Cu和Fe等养分呈有规律的改变。当土地由草地变为林地、旱地变为林地、旱地变为水田时 ,总体养分增多。但也有例外 ,尤其是碱解N、速效P和速效K以及微量元素 ,有时出现与上述规律不一致的情况。