Monitoring and Analysis of Surface Deformation in Mining Area Based on InSAR and GRACE

Abstract

To determine the relationship between underground mining, groundwater storage change, and surface deformation, we first used two sets of ENVISAT data and one set of Sentinel-1A data to obtain surface deformation in eastern Xuzhou coalfield based on the temporarily coherent point interferometric synthetic aperture radar (TCPInSAR) technique. By comparison with underground mining activities, it indicated that the surface subsidence is mainly related to mine exploitation and residual subsidence in the goaf, while the surface uplift is mainly related to restoration of the groundwater level. The average groundwater storage change in the eastern Xuzhou coalfield from January 2005 to June 2017 was obtained through the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) data, and the results indicated that the groundwater storage changed nonlinearly with time. The reliability of the groundwater monitoring results was qualitatively validated by using measured well data from April 2009 to April 2010. Combining with time of mining and mine closing analysis, groundwater storage change within the research area had a strong correlation with drainage activity of underground mining. An analysis was finally conducted on the surface deformation and the groundwater storage change within the corresponding time. The results indicated that the groundwater storage variation in the research area has a great influence on the surface deformation after the mine closed.