Assessment of coal mines liquidation impact on ecological situation in the Russian Donbass

The relevance of the research is caused by the necessity of carrying out of scientifically grounded technical accompaniment of works on liquidation of unviable coal mines in the Russian Donbass (Rostov region) to minimize negative impact on the environment and people of the region. The aim of the research is to justify and develop a set of methods for assessment of negative impact of technogenic factors on regional environmental system, accompanying liquidation at the unpromising coal mines. Objects of researches are coal-bearing rock massif, underground and surface waters in the region, the atmosphere, the waste rock dump and piles. Methods: integrated system analysis, synthesis of alternatives, methods of mathematical statistics and probability, mathematical modeling, optimization methods and operations research, verification of results. Results. The authors have developed the methodology to assess the liquidation impact on the environment of the Russian Donbass and proposed scientific-methodical approaches to solving the problem. The main factors that determine the scale and types of negative effects accompanying the organizational and technical processes of unviable coal mines were identified. In particular, it was found that the nature and spatial temporal parameters of technogenic impacts depend on the dynamics of the rise of mine water. A complex of private physical and mathematical models required to describe industrial processes was formed. A systematic approach to experimental studies of coal-rock mass in the territory of the liquidated mines allowed as well setting the integrated spatial-temporal characteristics of the dynamics of flooding of mined-out space. The technique can be recommended for being used to substantiate the liquidation of technical measures in mining and geological conditions of all coal-mining areas of Russia, since it is based on the fundamental points of the physico-mathematical theory, geology and ecology, while the regularities of the dynamics of industrial processes have a universal character. It is important to specify that the environmental and economic efficiency of this development is confirmed by the practice at the closure of the coal mines in the Rostov region.