Abstract: Large-scale mining has produced great influence on local fragile eco-environment in Northern Shaanxi, such as leakage of aquifer and reduction of flows. Under this background, to acquire the migration situations of water resources in arid mining area, taking Shennan Mining Area in Northern Shaanxi as example, a series of works were carried out to study the division evaluation of water resources’ leakage degree, water resources quantity forecasting after mining, and analysis and comparison of water quality in goaf. The results show that the gross quantity of water resources in the mining area increases after mining, and the water in goaf is the main source of the growth. Consequently, the gross amount of water resources is proposed as the evaluation standard of “water preserved mining”. If the gross amount of water resources before mining is greater than that after mining, the water resources are running off on the whole. On the contrary, it is considered that the mining process can improve the oc- cur rence condition of water resources in some specified region, that is, the coal mining is beneficial to water resources protection. From above standard, water resources environment in Shennan Mining Area is improved.

Key words: water preserved mining, division evaluation, migration of water resources, gross amount of water resources