Geological Support Strategies for Loss-reduction Coal Mining Under Extreme Climate Conditions

Against the backdrop of intensifying global climate change, extreme climate events pose systemic challenges to safe production, efficient operation, and ecological sustainability in coal mining areas through cascading and compounding effects across the coupled “atmosphere-water-rock-soil-biosphere” system. Extreme events—particularly intense rainfall—substantially alter hydrogeological boundary conditions, accelerating water-driven deterioration of rock-soil mechanical properties and inducing abnormal increases in pore-water pressure, thereby altering seepage-stress coupling responses and disrupting the geomechanical equilibrium. These perturbations can trigger a spectrum of geohazards, including slope instability, fracture propagation in surrounding rock, mine water inrush (or outburst), and goaf collapse, which collectively disrupt mining continuity and economic viability. Meanwhile, extreme climate conditions further amplify the environmental impacts of mining activities; severe drought and heat stress weaken ecological restoration capacity and reduce regional carbon sink potential, whereas heavy rainfall intensifies runoff-driven erosion and promotes the transport and dispersion of contaminants, posing persistent threats to regional ecological security and environmental risk control. The mechanisms by which extreme climate events reshape the geological conditions of coal mining were systematically elucidated, the underlying scientific principles of risk-mitigation and preventive measures were established, and a resilience-oriented geological hazard management framework for coal mining areas under extreme climate disturbances was proposed. This framework comprises five key components. ① Mechanistic understanding: this component aims to reveal coupled multi-sphere response patterns and establish a dynamic mechanism centered on hydrological pathways and the evolution of rock-soil properties. ② Information sensing: this involves constructing a dynamic monitoring system for multi-sphere interfaces, structural characteristics, and state evolution, and developing an integrated evolutionary model that fuses geological, mining, hydrogeological, and ecological information. ③ Model-based prediction: dynamic analytical models of multi-sphere mass and energy transfer are developed to elucidate the cascading chain from geological condition changes to mining-induced hazards, and finally to ecological degradation. ④ Regulation and risk control: this pillar focuses on developing adaptive mining control technologies and loss-mitigation engineering measures matched to geological conditions to mitigate the intensity and spatial extent of climate-driven damage to the coal mining geo-environment. ⑤ Resilience enhancement: the goal is to establish a multi-objective decision framework encompassing geotechnical safety, production efficiency, and ecological health, and to develop an intelligent platform based on dynamic risk assessment to enable climate-adaptive, resilience-based management across the whole life cycle of the mine. Managing geological risks to reduce losses in coal mining areas under extreme climate conditions constitutes a complex systems engineering challenge involving coupled multiple-layer responses, dynamic process regulation, and system-level resilience enhancement. Extreme climate events modify the intensity and pathways of mass and energy exchanges across multiple layers, constantly disrupting the stability of geological structures and hydrological cycling in mining districts, thereby forming a compound “meteorological-hydrological-geological-ecological” damage-response pattern. The systematic implementation of this integrated strategy can thus significantly strengthen the resilience of coal mining areas, ensuring mining operations that are secure, efficient, and environmentally sustainable.