The ecological environment in the northwest arid desert areas of China is fragile. Coal mining activity severely damaged vegetation and affected the ecological environment of mining area. However, the impact of the underground coal mining on the dynamic change of vegetation in the arid desert area is not yet clear. In this study, taking Lingwu city as an example, the dynamic changes of vegetation and its relationship with underground coal mining from 2000 to 2019 was analyzed using a combination of remote sensing technology and field investigation. The results showed that the vegetation in the region of Lingwu was mainly desert plants such as Artemisia salsoloides, Caragana korshinskii, and Achnatherum splendens. From 2000 to 2019, the fractional vegetation coverage (FVC) and the greenness rate of change (GRC) showed that the vegetation was slight improved. The normalized vegetation index (NDVI) had significant correlation with meteorological factors such as annual precipitation (P) and mean wind speed (S), indicating that meteorological factors played a major role in the dynamic change of vegetation in northwest arid desert areas. Coal mining activity encroached on grassland and shrubland areas, and led to changes in land use types, while the implementation of ecological environmental protection policy played important roles in the changes of land use types and vegetation improvement in this region. The field investigation showed that the plant community structure in coal mining area was changed by the coal mining activity. The vegetation coverage and species diversity index both showed a downward trend within 1-4 years after coal mining, and an upward trend within 5-9 years, and tended to be consistent with the control area after 10 years natural restoration. This indicated that the succession of vegetation under natural restoration in coal mining areas experienced three stages: the degradation, improvement and initial recovery. All these results provided a theoretical basis for vegetation restoration in coal mining areas and ecological environment construction in the northwest arid desert areas.