Does Coal Mining Have Effects on Land Use Changes in a Coal Resource-Based City? Evidence from Huaibei City on the North China Plain

Abstract

Continuous coal mining results in dramatic regional land use change, and significantly influences the sustainable development of coal resource-based cities. Present studies pay little attention to the characteristics and regularities of land use change in coal resource-based cities, caused by underground coal mining in high groundwater areas. Based on the Landsat remote sensing images of 1999, 2000, 2010, and 2018 of Huaibei City, a typical coal resource-based city of a high ground water area on the North China Plain, this paper applies the dynamic degree and transition matrix of land use to analyze the land use change characteristics, and identify the regularity between land use type and coal mining production in this coal resource-based city. Results show that the land use change in the research area presents an overall characteristic of a constant increase in water area, urban construction land, and rural settlement land, and a continuous decrease in cultivated land. Cultivated land is converted into a water area, urban construction land, and rural settlement land, and rural settlement land and cultivated land are converted bidirectionally. The land use change in this coal resource-based city demonstrates significant reliance on coal resources, and coal mining is significantly related to the area of cultivated land, water area, and rural settlement land, which demonstrates that continuous large-scale coal mining results in damage to cultivated land, a decrease in rural settlement land, and an increase in water area. The research result contributes to the sustainable land use of coal resource-based cities.