A New Method for Quantitative Analysis of Driving Factors for Vegetation Coverage Change in Mining Areas: GWDF-ANN.

Mining has caused considerable damage to vegetation coverage, especially in grasslands. It is of great significance to investigate the specific contributions of various factors to vegetation cover change. In this study, fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) is used as a proxy indicator for vegetation coverage. We constructed 50 sets of geographically weighted artificial neural network models for FVC and its driving factors in the Shengli Coalfield. Based on the idea of differentiation, we proposed the geographically weighted differential factors-artificial neural network (GWDF-ANN) to quantify the contributions of different driving factors on FVC changes in mining areas. The highlights of the study are as follows: (1) For the 50 models, the average RMSE was 0.052. The lowest RMSE was 0.007, and the highest was 0.112. For the MRE, the average value was 0.007, the lowest was 0.001, and the highest was 0.023. The GWDF-ANN model is suitable for quantifying FVC changes in mining areas. (2) Precipitation and temperature were the main driving factors for FVC change. The contributions were 32.45% for precipitation, 24.80% for temperature, 22.44% for mining, 14.44% for urban expansion, and 5.87% for topography. (3) Over time, the contributions of precipitation and temperature exhibited downward trends, while mining and urban expansion showed positive trajectories. For topography, its contribution remains generally unchanged. (4) As the distance from the mining area increases, the contribution of mining gradually decreases. At 200 m away, the contribution of mining was 26.69%; at 2000 m away, the value drops to 17.8%. (5) Mining has a cumulative effect on vegetation coverage both interannually and spatially. This study provides important support for understanding the mechanism of vegetation coverage change in mining areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]