Building damage risk assessment on mining terrains in Poland with GIS application

The aim of the paper was to present an approach to building damage risk assessment on mining induced areas. The presented method was developed in Poland and then adopted in the other European countries. The method shown is based on a comparison between buildings strength and terrain deformation. Prediction principles of the mining terrain deformation and terrain categorization were described in the paper. Moreover a point method for a building strength to mining impact evaluation was discussed. It should be emphasized that the presented method is optimal for densely build-up areas. The authors proposed supporting actually applied method by GIS analyses.As a case study a densely build-up area influenced by an underground mining exploitation of one of the biggest Polish coal mines has been chosen. The application of the presented method supported by GIS on chosen area enables more automated assessment of building damage caused by mining activity. The procedure outlined in this paper may also be satisfactorily applied in the other counties which cope with the problem of building damage risk assessment optimization.