New advances and strategic considerations in coal mine water prevention and control technology during “14 th Five-Year Plan” period

The year 2026 marks the beginning of China’s “15th Five-Year Plan” period. Building on past achievements and advancing coal mine water prevention and control work is a critical task for achieving high-quality development in the coal industry. We reviews the major technological advances in water inflow prediction, water hazard detection, and control during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, and offers in-depth insights into future technological development directions. This work highlights the following key advancements during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period: ① Development of dynamic prediction methods for water inflow in coal mining faces; ② Diversification of water reduction technologies and methods in water-rich coal mines; ③ Accumulation of valuable experience and practices in the prevention and control of high-position separated layer water hazards; ④ Transition from point-based exploration to “in-hole” “cross-hole”, and “real-time” exploration using drilling and mining equipment, creating new approaches for advanced water hazard detection; ⑤ Increasing integration of transparent geology into water hazard prevention, revolutionizing concepts and evaluation methods; ⑥ Achievements in intelligent equipment and technologies for water hazard prevention, keeping pace with the times; ⑦ The concept of water prevention and control management has been continuously improved, and the requirements for water prevention and control work in coal mines have become more specific and comprehensive. Based on the summarizing six new advancements in water hazard prevention technologies, this study identifies the main current issues in coal mine water hazard prevention. Starting from the technical needs for water hazard prevention during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, it proposes several recommendations across three technical directions: advanced process materials for source protection of mine water, core model criteria for intelligent control of coal mine water hazards, and research & development of key generalized technologies for composite disaster prevention in coal mines. Additionally, based on the “feedback-control” system perspective, it outlines a conceptual framework for constructing an engineering technical standard system for water hazard management.