The Impact of Hard Coal Mining on the Long-Term Spatio-Temporal Evolution of Land Subsidence in the Urban Area (Bielszowice, Poland)

This article presents the results of long-term monitoring of land subsidence in the Bielszowice area (Upper Silesian Coal Basin) using archival maps from the late 19th and 20th centuries, as well as contemporary LIDAR models from 2012 and 2022. The research work conducted included an analysis of subsidence caused by mining activities based on four terrain models: a historical terrain model obtained by digitizing Messtischblätter topographic maps, showing the land surface in 1883, a terrain model obtained by vectorizing Polish topographic maps from 1993, and LIDAR digital terrain models from 2012 and 2022. The study shows that over a period of 139 years, the study area subsided by an average of 9.5 m, which translated into an anthropogenic land subsidence rate of 68 mm/year and a subsidence volume of 100.5 million m 3 . The greatest subsidence occurred in the northern part of the study area, where basins with depths exceeding 30 m (the maximum subsidence amounted to 36 m) emerged. During the 139 years studied, land subsidence affected the entire area that was built up until 2022. Overall, 38.9% of built-up areas subsided by less than 10 m, 54.0% was subject to subsidence ranging between 10 and 20 m, and subsidence of more than 20 m affected 7.1% of the areas. Such large-scale subsidence in an urbanized area resulted in mining damage to houses and other infrastructure (e.g., railroads, roads); in extreme cases, some structures had to be demolished. Bielszowice is a good example of an area where spatial conflicts have emerged that have been related to the activities of industrial plants on the one hand and the development of urban areas on the other.