Effect of Shallow-Buried High-Intensity Mining on Soil Water Content in Ningtiaota Minefield

Abstract

Shallow-buried high-intensity mining (SHM) activities commonly in China’s western mining area will lead to the decrease of groundwater level and soil water content (SWC), which will aggravate the further deterioration of the local fragile ecological environment. In this study, the applicability and limitations of six typical soil dielectric models were comprehensively evaluated based on ground penetrating radar (GPR) technology and shallow drilling methods. Moreover, experiments were performed to test the variation of SWC in Ningtiaota minefield affected by the SHM. The results show that the fitting effect of the four empirical models and two semi-empirical models on the clay is better than that of the medium sand. Among the six models, the Ledieu model has the best performance for medium sand, and the Topp model for clay. After SHM, the shallow SWC decreases as a whole. The decreasing range is 4.37–15.84%, showing a gradual downward trend compared with the one before mining. The shorter the lagging working face distance, the greater the drop of SWC will be. The longer the lagging working face distance, the smaller the drop of SWC will be showing a gradual and stable trend.