Integrating MCE with GIS for suitability evaluation of the reclamation land in Antaibao open pit coal mine

This paper integrates the multi-criteria evaluation with geographical information systems for suitability elevation of the reclamation land in Antaibao open pit coal mine, Shanxi, China. With the support of Multi-criteria evaluation and GIS, the 7 valuable factors were chosen: slopes of terrain; the types of landuse; the thickness of soil; the content of organic matter in soil; the bulk density of soil; unbalanced sedimentation; surface soil material composition. the first method that was used to solve this MCE problem is the familiar Boolean approach. The factors are standardized throughout a continuous scale of suitability from 0 (the least suitable) to 255 (the most suitable). The factor weight is derived by the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method. With the WLC, each standardized factor is multiplied by its corresponding weight and the sum is divided by the number of factors. The resultant image is a measure of aggregate suitability that range 0–255 for non-constrained locations.