Delimiting supervision zones to inform the revision of land reclamation management modes in coal mining areas: A perspective from the succession characteristics of rehabilitated vegetation

The rational delimitation of supervision zones is an important means of regional management that can effectively solve the problem of unbalanced development among reclaimed coal mine areas. In this study, 32 years of vegetation fractional coverage (VFC) series data from 1989 to 2020 were obtained for the area around the Pingshuo opencast coal mine. Then, the S-logistic function was applied to fit the VFC series data for each reclamation dump unit. Combined with the recognition results of coal mining and land reclamation years and by setting three delimitation criteria, the supervision zones of land reclamation that need to be better managed in the reclaimed dump sites were delimited. Finally, optimization revisions of the land reclamation management mode were proposed. The results showed that the effective reclamation zones of land reclamation occupied most of the study area, especially in the early reclaimed west dump, south dump and inner dump I areas of the Antaibao coal mine. The level one supervision zones, which were delineated as the general management zones, were mainly concentrated in the Anjialing inner dump, Nansigou dump, east dump, and west dump. The level two supervision zones, which were delineated as special management zones, were mainly concentrated in the Anjialing Nansigou dump site. Moreover, the Pingshuo coal mine dump sites were divided into four mode areas, namely, ecological conservation, ecological monitoring, ecological restoration, and ecological reconstruction, for the revision of land reclamation management. The proportion of area corresponding to each management mode was 49 %, 23 %, 24 % and 4 %, respectively. The management modes applicable to different reclaimed dump sites differed, and the specific management measures to be adopted depend on the succession pattern of the whole processes of rehabilitated vegetation. This study provides a new approach for delimitating the supervision zones of land reclamation and proposes revision management modes for the precise implementation of land reclamation development plans in coal mining areas.