Study on the water-richness law and zoning assessment of mine water-bearing aquifers based on sedimentary characteristics

To study and prevent the water hazards of deep coal mines roof in the Inner Mongolia–Shaanxi (IM–S) mining area, it is essential to correctly evaluate the water-richness distributions of water-bearing aquifers in roof. This paper puts forward a sediment control method for water-richness law and zoning in the roof aquifers of deep Jurassic coals. To determine the vertical distance of direct water-bearing aquifers, the height of fractured water-conducting zone was detected by an underground network parallel electrical method. The plane and lateral spatial distribution patterns of the water-bearing aquifers and the control of the water-richness distribution was analyzed with the sediment control method. An evaluation system that consisted of four indicators, i.e., sedimentary environmental impact index, interlayer ratio of sandstone and mudstone, sandstone thickness, geophysical water-richness anomaly index was constructed. Furthermore, an Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was introduced to establish the comprehensive zoning map. Finally, through the example analysis of Muduchaideng coal mine, the zoning evaluation results of water-richness were verified by the mine inflow. The findings of this study provide scientific guidance for prevention and control of mine water hazards in the IM–S mining area.