Abstract: Open-pit coal mines in arid and semi-arid areas are a crucial component of national coal resources, which occupy an essential position in promoting regional economic growth and meeting rising energy demand. However, numerous challenges are caused by open-pit coal mining activities, including vegetation coverage deterioration, soil erosion intensification, water resources consumption, and biodiversity decline, which severely threaten regional ecological security and sustainable development. At present, few systematic studies have been conducted on the disturbance processes, the accurate diagnosis of degradation scope, and ecological regulation strategies for open-pit coal mine ecosystems in arid and semi-arid areas. Therefore, the disturbance processes of vegetation destruction, dust migration, and hydrological imbalance caused by open-pit coal mining are systematically analyzed, disturbance recognition criteria based on spatial visualization are established, and comprehensive regulation strategies of vegetation management, linkage prevention and control of dust migration, and optimal allocation of soil and water resources are proposed. The results show that the ecosystem disturbance caused by open-pit coal mining in arid and semi-arid areas presents the characteristics of vegetation removal and destruction, dust migration intensification, hydrological cycle imbalance, and ecosystem function decline, which are manifested in the degradation and death of plant communities, triple degradation of soil physicochemical and biological traits, reconstruction of precipitation-runoff-groundwater circulation paths, and systemic damage to water conservation, climate regulation, and biodiversity functions. To realize spatial visualization and threshold classification of the degradation range, multi-source data, including remote sensing images, unmanned aerial vehicle monitoring, and ground observation, are integrated, and three-dimensional degradation diagnosis standards based on vegetation coverage, dust transition range, and hydrological cycle changes are established. The regulation concepts should follow the principles of integrity, systematicness, and pertinence, containing full-cycle management, technology integration, and comprehensive guarantee. For vegetation restoration, a closed-loop management approach for pre-harvest prevention, mid-harvest control, and post-harvest restoration is implemented. The full-cycle management of topsoil, slope ecological reinforcement, and local vegetation allocation technology is adopted. For dust migration protection, windproof and sand-fixation forest belts, windproof dust-suppression nets, terrain transformation projects, wet operation, closed transportation, intelligent monitoring, and early warning stage protection are integrated, supplemented by ecological restoration measures such as vegetation sand fixation, soil improvement, and microbial sand fixation. For hydrological management, surface water circulation is optimized through ground waterproofing engineering, water purification systems, and vegetation interception systems, and the sustainable use of groundwater is achieved by combining impermeable walls, coal and rock column retention, and dredging-recharge systems. The processes and spatial characteristics of ecosystem disturbance caused by open-pit coal mining are clarified, providing a theoretical basis and technical pathways for ecological restoration in arid and semi-arid areas.