Evaluating Differences in Post-Restoration Value of Coal Mining Areas with Integrated Public Satisfaction

Large-scale and continuous mining activities have led to serious degradation of the ecosystem and threatened human well-being. Therefore, evaluating the effectiveness of ecological restoration in mining areas is imperative, particularly in terms of public satisfaction. This study takes three wetland parks restored from coal mining subsidence areas in Xuzhou as case studies. By integrating remote sensing analysis, field investigations, and valuation methods such as the travel cost method and the market value method, we construct an ecosystem service valuation framework for coal mining subsidence areas based on social media data. This framework comprehensively assesses public satisfaction, socio-economic value, and ecological value for each study area. The results indicate that ecological restoration has diversified land-use types, accompanied by high public satisfaction toward the restored wetland parks; more than 80% of sentiment data sourced from social media reflect positive attitudes. The social-economic values of Jiuli Lake, Pan'an Lake and Anguo Lake are 138.45 million CNY, 353.04 million CNY and 90.58 million CNY respectively. Jiuli Lake and Anguo Lake had the highest provisioning services value, while Pan'an Lake had the highest recreation value. The total ecological values are 184.19 million CNY, 123.44 million CNY and 67.58 million CNY, respectively, among which the climate regulation value is the highest, and the air purification value is the lowest. The results of this study can provide a methodological framework for the ecological restoration of mining subsidence areas, and a new direction for future ecological restoration of mining subsidence areas.