Acta Geodynamica et Geomaterialia

Title: HISTORICAL AND PRESENT-DAY VERTICAL MOVEMENTS ON OLD MINING TERRAINS - CASE STUDY OF THE WALBRZYCH COAL BASIN (SW POLAND)
Authors: Blachowski Jan, Milczarek Wojciech and Grzempowski Piotr
DOI: 10.13168/AGG.2015.0020
Journal: Acta Geodynamica et Geomaterialia, Vol. 12, No. 3 (179), Prague 2015
Full Text: PDF file (5.8 MB)
Keywords: underground coal mining, abandoned mines, levelling, subsidence, interpolation, GIS
Abstract: The paper focuses on the analysis of vertical movements on old mining terrains in the final stages of mining and in the period after the end of mining. The study has been done for the Walbrzych Coal Basin area in SW Poland, which has been a hard coal mining centre until the mid-90’ties of the 20th Century. The study has been performed in geographic information systems (GIS) using national precise levelling data from three measurement campaigns in 1972, 1993 and 2014 spanning period of 42 years and using six interpolation functions, i.e.: inverse distance weighted, kriging, local polynomial, natural neighbour, radial basis function and spline. Accuracy of interpolation results has been analysed and maps representing vertical movements on mining terrains in the final two decades of mining and the two decades after the end of mining prepared with the interpolation function with the least error of estimation. The maps have been graphically correlated with plans of the abandoned coal mines and present day development of the surface. Differentiated vertical movements on old mining terrains ranging from -0,048 m to + 0,189 m have been observed in the period after the end of mining (1993-2014) indicating present-day secondary movements on these grounds. The areas of elevation in the second period are associated with the areas of greatest subsidence observed in the first period (1972-1993).