Investigation Of Soil And Water Loss And Estimation Of New Soil And Water Loss In The Shanxi-shaanxi-mongolia Energy Zone

Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia Energy development zone is an important energy and heavy chemical industry center in China.It is one of the seven largest coal fields across the world.It is located in the wind and water erosion crisscross zone where water and soil erosion is most serious on the Loess Plateau.Since the large-scale coal mining in the late 1980s,serious human activities have been superimposed on the serious erosion,resulting in a more fragile and harsh ecological environment in the area.During the“Seventh Five-Year Plan”period,a comprehensive scientific survey of the Loess Plateau identified the major causes and distribution characteristics of soil erosion over the area.For the first time,the concepts and boundaries of the wind-water erosion interlaced zone were proposed.In 1995,the Institute of Soil and Water Conservation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted an“Environmental Impact Study on the Phase I and Phase II of the Shenmu Dongsheng Mining Area”to identify the soil erosion,landslide debris flow,ground subsidence,river silting,vegetation evolution,land use evolution and degradation,and water resources pollution in the mining area.In the past 20 years,China has implemented a series of ecological remediation projects such as cultivating forests and returning grass,mining water conservation and environmental protection,green mines,and land reclamation.These measures have brought about fundamental and dramatic changes in the environment of the mining areas.How is the environment of the restored Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia mining areas?It is necessary to carry out a comprehensive and systematic scientific investigation and a general survey of the mining area’s background value and soil erosion,which is of major scientific significance as a main benchmark for ecological governance and national decision-making.Therefore,this paper took soil and water loss in the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia energy areas as the study site,adopted a combination of documentary data collection,field investigation,and indoor analysis,focusing on loose deposits,new excavated surfaces,intensity-disturbed ground,and dumping soils.Typical surveys and researches on artificial soil erosion in fields,spoil slag dumps and subsidence areas was undertaken to identify the distribution,quantity and scale of coal mines and quarries under construction,in production,clarify the causes of soil erosion,and estimate energy development zones.We also estimated the amount of new soil and water loss.Our results provided a useful basis for the conservation of soil erosion and the construction of ecological environment in Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia energy regions.The main conclusions are as follows:(1)The untreated gangue fields are generally meteorite and there is little soil and water loss.According to the survey,the parameters of the physical model of the dump and gangue field are:slope length 10-15 m,slope 25°-35°and slope length 5-10 m,slope 25°-35°.This provided a useful reference for the establishment of physical model in rainfall simulations.(2)In dump field slopes,rill erosion and surface erosion are major erosion types,accounting for 36.25%and 50%of the total number of surveyed slopes.In gangue field slopes,rill erosion is the main erosion type,accounting for 65.79%of the studied slopes.The soil erosion intensity on the dump field slope reached 51.25%of the extreme intensity and above,and 43.42%in the gangue field slope,indicating that the task of soil and water loss control in the slope of the dumping site in Shanxi-Shaanxi-and Mongolia energy development zone is still very necessary.(3)There are 151 coal mines in total under construction and production in the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia energy development zone.The total area of the coal mines is315392.5 hm~2.There are 27 in Shanxi,32 in Shaanxi,92 in Inner Mongolia.The coal mine in Shanxi,Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia covers an area of 41128.77 hm~2,110932.15 hm~2and163331.55 hm~2respectively.(4)The total area of new soil erosion caused by coal mines in the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia energy development zone was 10,193.89 hm~2,and the total amount of new soil erosion was 518,383.20 t.The total area of new soil erosion in Shanxi,Shaanxi,and Inner Mongolia were 1625.86,1323.99,and 7244.04 hm~2,respectively,and the new soil and water losses were 84800.83,84501.91,and 349080.50 t,respectively;New areas of soil and water loss caused by mining projects and new water and soil loss and construction stages,loose deposits,new excavated surfaces,intensity disturbed ground,dump(gangue)filed,high and steep slopes,abandon soil and slag body.The parameters of artificial soil erosion are significantly correlated.(5)The area or capacity of minefield cannot explain the size of new soil erosion in a coal mine.The new soil erosion and the correlation between coal mine’s area and production capacity are not significant,and are significantly related to loose deposits,dumping sites,new excavation surfaces.(6)There are 14 quarries under construction and production in the Shanxi-Shaanxi-Inner Mongolia energy development zone,with a total area of 48.35 hm~2and a total capacity of 121t.The total area of new water and soil loss caused was 37.93 hm~2,and the total amount of soil erosion was 87.46 t.The new area of soil erosion is linearly related to the area of the quarry.The regression equation is:y=0.85x-0.23(R~2=0.81);the amount of new soil erosion is also linearly related to the quarry area.The regression equation is:y=226.89x-161.33(R~2=0.79)...