GIS and ANN coupling model: an innovative approach to evaluate vulnerability of karst water inrush in coalmines of north China

In northern China, coal mining is often affected by groundwater inrushes from the underlying karst aquifers. Water inrush is controlled by geomorphology, regional geologic structure, and hydrogeologic conditions of the coalmines. A geographic information system (GIS) was constructed to evaluate the vulnerability of the water inrush for coalmines in north China. An artificial neural network (ANN) is used to determine the weight coefficient for each factor that affects the water inrush. The developed coupling technique can be used to forecast karst water inrushes and perform the sensitivity analysis for each factor.