Modern longwall shields enable the advancement and increasing scale of coal development in the face area. More intensive and large-scale underground coal mining at a shallow depth inevitably causes significant damage to the ground surface structures and the ecological environment, such as massive ground cracks, step function subsidence, and water table contamination. Although there are different techniques to observe and record the characteristics of ground movement in a mining area, determining its correlation with underground mining has always been challenging. An accurate prediction of the development of ground damage and how it correlates with unground mining designs should help to assess surface damage and improve ground control.

Regular collapses of a large strong roof layer, particularly under conditions of shallow depth, control the development of ground movement in some way. In this regard, the development of ground damage can be assessed from two aspects: ground control in the underground mining area where all ground damage is initiated (from the damage reduction point of view), and the land remediation on the surface where the damage shows (from the damage reparation point of view). However, the key is to develop a better understanding of the correlation between ground damage and underground mining operations.

This Special Issue aims to collate research on the underlying mechanism of ground movement due to massive underground mining operations, with a consideration of the correlation between ground damage and underground excavation. The purpose is to reduce the surface damage from the optimization of the underground mine design. We welcome both review papers and original research articles that examine recent advanced techniques and the engineering approaches for monitoring and early warning of ground failures both in the face area and on the ground, and for the land treatment to reduce and repair ground damage.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Numerical and physical modeling of ground movement at shallow depth
• Ground movement characteristics caused by massive mining operations
• Monitoring and early warning of massive ground cracks
• Mechanism of collapse of massive strong roof strata
• Shield-strata interaction under strong roof conditions at shallow depth
• Longwall face stability and face fall control techniques in the face area
• Mechanism of roof cavity ahead of shields in the longwall face
• Seismic characteristics of the strong roof to locate and predict a major roof fall
• Optimization of the longwall face design to minimize ground failure
• Reparation of the ground surface in the mining area to reduce environmental damage