China's study on coal mining beneath surface buildings——state-of-the-art and developing trend

Extensive coal deposits are sterilized beneath surface buildings in China. The paper elaborates on the present status of the study on mining beneath surface buildings from several aspects involving the techniques for reducing ground subsidence and deformation and the measures for protecting buildings. Following that, it is pointed out that, in the future, more efforts should be directed forwards the following aspects: the laws governing the ground movement; the techniques for constructing anti-deformation buildings; coal-bed gasification and protection of buildings; grouting of the overlying strata with bed separation phenomena; and the method for evaluating the stability of the ground above a worked-out area.