Extreme Precipitation Susceptibility Map over the Main Mining Areas of China Based on Satellite Precipitation Products

Extreme precipitation is of vital importance for mining safety, which is also the key issue for ecological treatment of mining areas. Satellite precipitation estimates is a major source of precipitation data, which is the only promising global product with continuous spatiotemporal coverages. However, the potential risk analysis based on Satellite precipitation products in mining areas is almost an unexplored field. This study aims to map an extreme precipitation susceptibility over the main mining areas of China. First, the accuracy of two highly approved satellite-based precipitation products, Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation (GSMap) and Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG), are evaluated. Then the spatiotemporal characteristics of extreme precipitation events are explored by analysing the precipitation measures, e.g., the number, mean intensity and duration of extreme precipitation events, over the main mining areas of China during the past two decades. The results demonstrate that, (1) GSMap preforms better in most cases than IMERG in terms of the correlation coefficients (CC∽0.734), BIAS (∽0.396), RMSE (∽6.63), and probability of detection (POD∽0.718), against ground observations, which is employed to depict the susceptibility map for extreme precipitation; (2) the number, mean intensity and duration of extreme precipitation events present significant seasonal and regional differences, where the number and mean intensity are remarkably increasing during the past two decades; and (3) the susceptibility map shows that mining regions over the Kuye River basin and the southeastern study area are relatively more vulnerable to the extreme precipitation events, which should be paid on great considerations during the mining activities. Results of this study indicate that it is more suitable to apply GSMap in mining areas, and provides a novel perspective for the safety mining related fields.