The article presents subject matter related to the assessment of the suitability of the built-up area, including the occurrence of sinkholes on the surface. The investment plot, which is the subject of the analysis, is located in the central part of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin, where shallow exploitation of coal seams was conducted in the past. At present it is a post-mining area, located at a large distance from active mines. It has an attractive administrative location and good transport connection with the main road connecting the cities of the Silesian agglomeration. These advantages make it particularly attractive in terms of use for various types of investments. The geological and mining factors are not favorable in the area in question, mainly due to the shallow mining exploitation conducted in the past and the access excavations on small depth and an unknown method of liquidation. These reasons are the cause of some restrictions in the use of construction, for which taking the appropriate solutions is recommended. According to the study of (Rules... 2009), the category of mining land should be defined for the areas of liquidated mining plants due to the limitation in construction use. The authors of the article made an attempt to determine it, and they analyzed the geological and mining conditions for this purpose, mainly including mining exploitation conducted in the past. On the basis of the obtained results and own experience, the type of expected hazards and its assessment were determined The probability of the occurrence of the inclusions according to the Chudek-Olaszowski method (Chudek et al. 1988) was assumed as a measure of the hazard.

Based on China’s resource endowment and coal mine disaster statistics, it has been found that there are many deficiencies in the management of disasters and risks in mining areas in China. Therefore, to scientifically and effectively manage mining areas, based on the theory of internal control, this paper systematically analyzes the risks of mining areas in the context of various factors and relevant suggestions. From the occurrence of mine risk to the occurrence of damage, the importance of risk management is highlighted. In accordance with the five selection principles of evaluation indicators (goal principle, comprehensiveness principle, scientificity principle, timeliness principle and focus principle) as well as the five elements of internal control (control environment, risk assessment, control activities, information and communication and supervision), a mining area risk managementframework of human-machine-environment-management – disturbance is constructed, and twentyseven secondary risk indicators are divided. The criteria for determining the risk level and the risk response process have been established, and a more systematic and accurate mine risk management system under the theory of internal control has been formed. Finally, based on four key technologies, a dual prevention and control mechanism is formed around the system risk and job risk management system. This provides new methods and ideas for the prevention and control of coal mine safety risks and the containment of disasters and accidents.

The post-mining areas due to the difficulties of those, often associated with expensive activities, usually take the form of wasteland. In contrast, unavailable, unused and alien areas the mentality of residents, are identified with empty space. The purpose of the authors was to answer the question: Are post-mining areas becoming empty spaces? Her research basis was changes in the functioning of post-mining areas and empty spaces in Katowice – a city with a long-standing mining tradition. Using GIS tools, a spatial analysis was carried out to determine the empty spaces functions and the perceiving of the post-mining areas by residents or users of a given district nearby.

Post-industrial areas are an area of concentration, penetration and shaping the economic, social and environmental zone. The strategic goal of transforming post-industrial areas should be to obtain a new, dynamic and favorable state of equilibrium for a given area, as well as its surroundings after cessation of operations. The purpose of the article is to indicate the possibility of adaptation of post-industrial areas, especially after exploitation of the mineral, to perform new functions. The direction and the purpose of the recultivation and planning actions to a large extent may be influenced by specific social and economic conditions affecting the competitiveness of each and individually treated fragment of space.

The rim of a post-exploitation basin is a particularly dangerous zone for buildings. This is due to the impact of mining on the nearby buildings, which persists even after exploitation activities are finished. The rim of the basin remains constantly deformed. This paper presents numerical analyses of buildings located in Marklowice (Silesian Voivodeship, Poland). They are located in an area that was exploited for mining, above the initial exploitation edge on the rim of the basin. The area of the analysed buildings was geodetically monitored during mining works. The results of the measurements allowed the observation of changes in terrain deformation indicators, together with the determination of the settlement’s final values after the operation was completed. Knowledge of the results enabled the preparation of numerical analyses of buildings with the use of the finite element method (FEM), the purpose of which was to determine the residual stresses in the structures after the end of the exploitation. The results are presented in the form of stress maps, which show changes in the internal forces in buildings left by mining operations. Specific examples are used. Two residential two-storey buildings were analysed; they were built using traditional brick methods, with a single-storey outbuilding. All of the analysed buildings are located in the mining commencement zone, in which the deformation of the surface has not faded away.

The article attempts to transfer information from the Point Nuisance Method (PNM) used in Poland in the issue of protection of buildings in mining areas, to the system of inference based on Bayesian formalism. For this purpose, all possible combinations occurring in PNM were selected. The number of numerically generated patterns was 6,718,464 cases. Then, based on Python package Scikit-Learn, a classification model was created in the form of the Naïve Bayes Classifier (NBC). The effectiveness of three methods used to build this type of decision-support system was analysed, from which the Categorical Multinomial Naive Bayes (CMNB) approach was finally selected. With the created classifier, its properties were verified in terms of quality of classify and generalization. For this purpose a general approach was used, analysing the level of accuracy of the model in relation to training and teaching data, and detailed, based on the analysis of the confusion matrix. Additionally, the operation of the created classifier was simulated to determine the optimal Laplace smoothing parameter α. The article ends with conclusions from the carried out calculations, in which an attempt was made to answer the question concerning potential reasons for incorrect classification of the created CMNB model. The discussion ends with a reference to the planned research, in which, among other things, the use of more complex Bayesian belief networks (BBN) is planned.

The paper presents an example illustrating the problems of assessing the causes of damage that occurred to building structures located in mining and post-mining area. It is frequently necessary to determine whether probable damages came from other, non-mining causes or were caused by underground mining. This issue is particularly significant when it comes to monumental, historical objects because the cost of repairs is typically very high. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate, using the magnificent church as an example, that damage to building objects situated in mining areas does not necessarily result from mining activities. As a result, every such situation should be thoroughly evaluated to determine whether such a relationship exists. For the assessment of such a conclusion, multidirectional studies in the framework of this work were carried out: hydrogeological, mining and technical factors that cause the damage to the church building in question were analysed.

In this article, the issue of mining impact on road pavements and subgrade is presented, taking into account the interaction between geosynthetic reinforcement and unbound aggregate layers. Underground mining extraction causes continuous and discontinuous deformations of the pavement subgrade. Structural deformations in the form of ruts are associated with the compaction of granular layers under cyclic loading induced by heavy vehicles. Horizontal tensile strains cause the loosening of the subgrade and base layers. The granular layers under cyclic loading are additionally compacted and the depth of ruts increases. Moreover, tensile strains can cause discontinuous deformations that affect the pavement in the form of cracks and crevices. Discontinuous deformations also affect the pavement in the fault zones during the impact of mining extraction. The use of geosynthetic reinforcement enables the mitigation of the adverse effects of horizontal tensile strains. Horizontal compressive strains can cause surface wrinkling and bumps. Subsidence causes significant changes in the longitudinal and transverse inclination of road surface. Both examples of the laboratory test results of the impact of subgrade horizontal strains on reinforced aggregate layers and the selected example of the impact of mining deformation on road subgrade are presented in this article. The examples show the beneficial impact of the use of geosynthetic reinforcement to stabilize unbound aggregate layers in mining areas.

This research paper presents the results of the analyses of the course of technical wear over time carried out for residential masonry buildings located in the mining area of the Lublin Coal Basin (LCB). As a result of the conducted analyses, models of the course of technical wear over time were obtained for the entire building development and for groups of buildings, taking into account the conducted renovation works and preventive structural protection. By comparing the parameters of the developed models, statistically significant differences in the course of technical wear resulting from the quality of maintenance and the use of preventive measures were identified. In addition, the durability of individual groups of structures was estimated and compared. Based on a comparison of the course of technical wear of 22-year-old building structures, unrenovated and with similar structural and material solutions, it was found that the rate of increase in technical wear after 50 years of use is on average 3.5% lower than in the case of unprotected buildings. In addition, the use of preventive structural protection extends the durability of the analysed building structures by an average of over 13 years. The obtained results may e.g. help owners or managers optimise the Maintenance Management of building structures.

The protection of copper and silver ore resources in the Polish Lubuskie Province requires certain steps to be taken, the suggestions for which are presented in this article. It addresses both known and newly discovered ore deposits, as well as prospective areas and places of ongoing exploration, which throughout the paper are collectively recognized as potential Cu-Ag mining areas. The example of Lubuskie Province was chosen as an exceptional region with multiple known areas of copper and silver ore potential, but no active mining operations until now. The study focuses on the nature and location of all potential mining areas in Lubuskie Province, and subsequently suggests the means of their protection which can be implemented today, as well as in the future. Such means should be introduced by way of new or amended legal regulations. Certain major changes to Polish law are necessary to provide sufficient protection of both currently known, as well as possible future deposits, against such use of land which would prevent the extraction of their resources. The study shows that the legal regulations effective in Poland today are insufficient or too vague, as they do not include any provisions concerning prospective resources, as well as areas of active mineral exploration, instead focusing solely on officially registered mineral deposits. Therefore, the proposals of new solutions providing better protection of all potential Cu-Ag mining areas are presented in this article.