SIRIMA: Managing the hazard and risk of sinkholes, or localized collapses, associated with former coal mines

Issues and needs

The SIRIMA project is a European project aimed at managing the risks associated with the closure of coal mines.

The coal mine closure process must be carefully managed to ensure the safe use of the ground and subsurface. Safety measures must be taken to protect the health and lives of local residents, as well as the conduct of businesses and the use of areas damaged by mining activities.

In addition to subsidence caused by mining operations or movements resulting from mining-related earth tremors, ground movements can also take the form of uplift caused by the rising water table in shallow mine shafts and galleries, with sudden, discontinuous deformations of the ground surface, known as sinkholes or localized collapses.

When these sinkholes occur in urbanised areas of coal-mining regions, they pose a real threat to buildings, technical infrastructure, roads and other utility installations. They can also pose a threat to human health and life, causing anxiety and stress for the population.

A multidisciplinary project, SIRIMA involves 7 beneficiaries and 4 project partners from different countries. It brings together experts in the field of mining and post-mining, who combine their skills in instrumentation and Earth observation, hazard and risk databases and mapping, ground-structure interaction and AI, with the aim of developing solutions to enable the sustainable management of post-mining hazards and risks, and more specifically of localized subsidence.

Expected results

The main objectives of the SIRIMA project for dealing with the hazard and risk of sinkholes or localized collapses are:

• to create a European database on sinkholes and analyse the conditions under which they occur, to improve hazard management in post coal-mining regions;
• to study the impact of rising mine water tables on ground surface instabilities;
• to identify the hazards and risks associated with shallow coal mining operations;
• to develop an automatic AI - Machine Learning model to help the various stakeholders involved in post-mining security better predict sinkhole hazards;
• to propose a tool for monitoring operations that includes informing the public and decision-makers about the hazard;
• to draw up an operational guidebook for mining authorities, stakeholders, etc. The aim of this guidebook is to better incorporate the sinkhole hazard into risk management and sustainable development of coal-mining regions undergoing transition.