Abstract:
Coal is the major fossil fuel used for power generation. Coal mining activities lead to environmental changes to a large extent,
such as degradation in the quality of air, water, and soil, changes in landform, land use/land cover, and vegetation distribution. Evaluating the environmental quality is therefore essential to study the nature and impact of mining activities on the
environment. The present study attempts to use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to assess the environmental quality
of Rujigou coalfeld that lacked previous such analysis. The criteria used for evaluation were selected through a literature
review and extensive feld survey. A photo tour of the study area shows the current ground conditions. Weights were assigned
to these criteria based on expert opinions, recommendations from published literature, and feld investigation. The results
indicate that mining activities in the study region most signifcantly impact the air quality, followed by soil, water, landform,
and vegetation. The knowledge of environmental quality can forewarn policymakers and mine managers about impending
environmental problems and improve their ability to manage and resolve them. Moreover, the systematic methodological
process described in this research can be applied to any study area with similar features to the one investigated in this paper.
