Ecological protection and restoration technology of large-scale open-pit coal mining area in the northern sand-proof belt

The northern sand-proof belt is the key zone for preventing and controlling desertification and sandification in China, and it is the core area of the “Three Norths” project, which is characterized by infertile soil, high wind speed, drought and water shortage, sparse vegetation, and low ecological resilience, and the contradiction between large-scale open-pit coal mining and ecological protection is prominent, which directly affects the regional ecological security and the national energy security, and there is an urgent need to carry out the research on the ecological protection and restoration of large-scale open-pit mining areas. The study of ecological protection and restoration of large-scale open-pit mining area is urgently needed. To address the problems of land destruction, dust and sand, falling water level, soil sanding, and vegetation degradation caused by large-scale open-pit coal mining in the northern sand belt, the study is based on the area of the northern sand belt and the size of the open-pit coal mine. Taking the large-scale surface coal mining area in Inner Mongolia, which has the largest area and proportion of surface coal production in the northern sand belt, as the research area, the research idea of “loss-reducing mining - three-dimensional water preservation - soil creation and soil revitalization - systematic restoration - integrated supervision and management” is revealed. Adhering to the research idea of "loss-reducing mining - three-dimensional water conservation - soil creation and living soil - system restoration - integrated supervision", the research area reveals the transmission mechanism of geotechnical damage and ecological degradation of large-scale surface mines, the mechanism of ecological loss-reducing mining, the mechanism of ecological self-sustainability, and develops key technologies such as loss-reducing mining with ecological protection, ecological design, water resource protection and comprehensive utilization, erosion-resistant geomorphological remodeling, fine reconstruction of the living soil layer in the discharge site, soil improvement, and quality enhancement and capacity increase, and joint restoration of fungus-algae-grass, ecosystem degradation supervision and other key technologies, form an ecological protection and restoration technology system suitable for the open-pit coal mine area in the northern sand-proof belt, and build a large-scale integrated demonstration area for ecological protection and restoration of the open-pit mine area. We will create a low-cost, high-efficiency, sustainable and replicable ecological protection and restoration model for large-scale open-pit coal mining areas, provide support for scientific mining and ecological safety in large-scale open-pit coal mining areas in the northern sand-proof belt of China, and realize the goal of coordinating energy supply and ecological protection in coal development and the goal of "developing the gold and silver mountains and recreating the green mountains and green water". © 2024 China Coal Society. All rights reserved.