[Exploring the Spatial and Temporal Evolution of Fractional Vegetation Cover and Driving Factors in Zhahe Mining Area...

Coal mining significantly affects vegetation evolution, but the patterns of vegetation change and the driving factors behind them in shaft mining mines are less explored. The Zhahe mining area in Huaibei City, China, was used as the study area to extract the vegetation cover （FVC） between 1987 and 2023 and explore the deep-seated drivers. Relying on the Google Earth Engine cloud platform, a total of 734 scenes of Landsat-5, Landsat-7, and Landsat-8 satellite image data were acquired from 1987 to 2023. Based on the image element dichotomous model, the spatial and temporal changes in FVC in the Zhahe mining area during the 37 years period were quantitatively analyzed by using trend analysis and stability analysis, and the impacts of nine driving factors on FVC in three aspects, namely, climate, topography, and human activities, were analyzed by using the geodetic detector. The results showed that： ① FVC in the Zhahe mining area has been decreasing over the past 37 years, with an average rate of change of 0.02%·a^-1. The average FVC level in the area was high, and the area with medium coverage and above accounted for 81.8%, with a spatial distribution characterized by "high in the northeast and low in the southwest." ② The FVC of each coal mine in the Zhahe mining area was dominated by high stability areas, accounting for more than 30% of the area, and the land use type was dominated by cultivated land and construction land, while the areas of lower stability were mainly concentrated in the Shuoxi Lake, the collapse zone of Zhong Lake, and the areas close to the town roads in the study area. ③ In the exploration of the influence of the nine driving factors on FVC, the order of the influence of each factor on FVC was as follows： land use type （0.41） > precipitation （0.164） > nighttime light （0.12） > temperature （0.095） > GDP （0.079） > population density （0.048） > elevation （0.043） > slope （0.040） > slope （0.021）. The interaction between land use type and other factors had the strongest effect on the spatial variability of FVC.