Conditional Land Reuse Planning for Coal Mine Restoration in China: Evidence of Robustness and Restoration-Funding Scenarios

Abstract

Land-reuse planning after coal mining must distinguish restoration needs, evidential readiness and the ability to fund continuing obligations. This study examines that distinction through 69 Chinese mine-area units, six purposively selected coal-related electricity statements and one monthly monitoring report for 13 plants within a single base. Recalculation of the inventory reveals 22 distinct substantive score profiles. Separating data completeness from physical restoration difficulty changes the screening category of 7 units; a 20% perturbation of one indicator weight changes up to 10 categories. Thus, complete scoring does not imply stable prioritization. We connect this screening diagnosis to non-compensatory land-use prerequisites and a task-based restoration-funding condition. Capacity-denominator reconciliation changes normalized electricity output by 0.06–15.01% in the monitored dataset. In the Huainan demonstration, floating photovoltaics and aquatic recovery remain unresolved but require different investigations. A discounted funding extension shows how degradation and additional dated obligations can remove an apparent maintenance surplus. The contribution is an auditable separation of investigation priority, alternative-specific eligibility and financial coverage under incomplete evidence. The findings support conditional documentary planning rather than national rankings, validated project profitability or observed ecological recovery.

The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Land, 2026 · DOI ↗