Background Timely and effective monitoring of the current status of the eco-geological environment is of great significance for scientific decision-making on geological environment protection and ecological restoration in underground coal mining areas. Aerial remote sensing technology, with its advantages in large-scale and rapid monitoring, has become an important technical means for eco-geological environment monitoring in mining areas.

Advances  Based on clarifying the relevant concepts of eco-geological environment monitoring, along with the requirements and monitoring contents for underground coal mining areas, this paper summarizes the research progress of aerial remote sensing technology in eco-geological environment monitoring of underground coal mining areas through a literature survey. It further discusses the deficiencies in existing research and the opportunities for future studies. It is concluded that eco-geological environment monitoring in underground coal mining areas is conducted under the disturbance of underground coal mining. It involves the quantitative monitoring and assessment of structural and functional changes in the coupled ecological–geological–disaster environment system, as well as disaster risks in mining areas, using various observation platforms and technologies. This provides a scientific basis for ecological environment restoration and geological disaster prevention and control in underground coal mining areas. Due to underground coal mining activities, underground coal mining areas commonly experience geological and ecological issues such as surface subsidence, vegetation destruction, soil pollution, and water body deterioration. Considerable achievements have been attained in utilizing aerial remote sensing for monitoring vegetation elements, soil elements, atmospheric elements, water body elements, geological environment, and disaster environment in underground coal mining areas. Nevertheless, problems still exist, such as unstable data acquisition, insufficient synergy between multi-source platforms and various sensors, and a limited number of currently realized monitoring indicators.

Prospects Facing typical complex flight environments, such as western sandy and windy areas and regions with thick loose layers, future efforts should focus on developing aerial remote sensing data preprocessing algorithms with data anti-interference, dynamic matching, and spatio-temporal correction capabilities. The synergistic advantages of multi-platform and multi-type sensors should be fully exploited to gradually establish a collaborative monitoring technology system for the eco-geological environment in underground coal mining areas based on multi-source platforms and sensors. Moreover, the capabilities of multi-source data collaboration and fusion should be enhanced to improve the monitoring accuracy of certain indicators and to expand eco-geological environment monitoring indicators featuring ecological restoration characteristics.