Satisfaction evaluation of ecological restoration in abandoned mines based on the residents’ perception: a case study in Ganzhou, Jiangxi

The ecological restoration of historical abandoned mines has emerged as a prominent issue that has been of great concern to the Chinese government and academia in recent years. In order to enhance the systematic and comprehensive evaluation of ecological restoration efforts in abandoned mines, this study explores and researches a new perspective, i.e. the subjective perception perspective based on residents’ satisfaction, and applies it to the ecological restoration performance evaluation of abandoned mines in Ganzhou, which is the most representative city of mineral resources in the southern hilly and mountainous area. An ecological restoration performance evaluation index system has been developed, encompassing three criteria layers: ecology, economy, and society, as well as twenty indicator layers. In this paper, a combination of Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and importance-performance analysis (IPA) method is proposed to empirically analyze the ecological restoration performance of abandoned mines in the study area. The study revealed that the three counties predominantly prioritized ecological benefits, whereas the satisfaction of residents with social and economic benefits was lacking. Based on the findings, corresponding countermeasures were proposed, offering a fresh perspective and theoretical framework for assessing ecological restoration in abandoned mines.