Deriving preference order of post-mining land-uses through MLSA framework: application of an outranking technique

This study intends to take advantage of a previously developed framework for mined land suitability analysis (MLSA) consisted of economical, social, technical and mine site factors to achieve a partial and also a complete pre-order of feasible post-mining land-uses. Analysis by an outranking multi-attribute decision-making (MADM) technique, called PROMETHEE (preference ranking organization method for enrichment evaluation), was taken into consideration because of its clear advantages on the field of MLSA as compared with MADM ranking techniques. Application of the proposed approach on a mined land can be completed through some successive steps. First, performance of the MLSA attributes is scored locally by each individual decision maker (DM). Then the assigned performance scores are normalized and the deviation amplitudes of non-dominated alternatives are calculated. Weights of the attributes are calculated by another MADM technique namely, analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in a separate procedure. Using the Gaussian preference function beside the weights, the preference indexes of the land-use alternatives are obtained. Calculation of the outgoing and entering flows of the alternatives and one by one comparison of these values will lead to partial pre-order of them and calculation of the net flows, will lead to a ranked preference for each land-use. At the final step, utilizing the PROMETHEE group decision support system which incorporates judgments of all the DMs, a consensual ranking can be derived. In this paper, preference order of post-mining land-uses for a hypothetical mined land has been derived according to judgments of one DM to reveal applicability of the proposed approach.     

Optimizing post-mining land use for pit area in open-pit mining using fuzzy decision making method

Open-pit mining method has severe environmental impacts which should be prevented, monitored, controlled, and reduced by mined-land reclamation process. After mine closure, a permanent post-mining land use should be implemented as an appropriate choice for using different sections of mined land. The most appropriate alternative of post-mining land use for each section of mined land is presented as the optimum post-mining land use. Pit area among different sections of mined land has more significant effects on the environment and also on defining the optimum post-mining land use for other sections of mined land. Though there are several alternatives and criteria for defining the optimum post-mining land use, the multi-attribute decision-making methods can be efficient techniques in this regard. The nature of the effective parameters used for defining the optimum post-mining land use is the same as Fuzzy numbers including incremental changes without definite limits. Thus, application of the Fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making modeling can produce more reliable results than that of other techniques. As well, pair-wise comparisons and judgments through Fuzzy numbers have proper consistency with the nature of the effective parameters; therefore, a model is developed to attain the optimum post-mining land use for pit area through Fuzzy analytical hierarchy processing. As a case study, the model was implemented in Sungun copper mine in the Northwest of Iran. Forestry?Clumber production was defined as the optimum post-mining land use containing the greatest relative importance coefficient 3.019 for the pit area in this mine.     

Application of fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making to select and to rank the post-mining land-use

The selection of an optimal reclamation method is one of the most important portions of the surface mining design. There are many factors in this problem which seriously influence decision-making. The fuzzy set theory was applied due to the effect of uncertain parameters involved in the decision-making process. Therefore, the fuzzy multi-attribute decision-making method was proposed. The aim of this study is to use the fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution method for ranking the optimal post-mining land-use and the fuzzy analytic hierarchy process method in order to determine the weights of each criterion. This approach is applied to the surface coal mine by employing 28 criteria which influence the decision-making procedure. The TOPSIS and AHP methods have been the most used methods of mining decision-making and demonstrated their ability to make critical decisions. By evaluating the alternatives and considering effective criteria with proposed methods, agriculture is the optimal post-mining land-use.     

A model for the representation of emergency cases

The aim of this paper is to propose a location model of earthquake emergency service depot on the basis of hybrid multi-attribute decision-making method. The advantage of the proposed method is that practical mixed uncertainty of location decision information is considered, and the corresponding factors that affect the location of transfer stations are contained. To solve the location problem, a hybrid multi-attribute decision procedure without information transformation is developed. Besides, a novel weighting method and aggregation process is given. Finally, a numerical example is provided to show the feasibility and validity of the proposed method.     

Improvement of land suitability assessment for agriculture—application in Algeria

The weighted sum already incorporated into a geographical information system (GIS) makes it possible to identify the best lands useful for sustainable agriculture. However, it does not allow for the inclusion of the decision makers’ preferences so that a choice can be made when there are conflicts between decision makers. Because of their spatial aggregation functions, multicriteria decision analysis methods can facilitate decision making in situations where several solutions are available, various criteria have to be taken into account, and decision makers disagree about one point or another. Combinations between ArcGIS and multicriteria analysis methods in this case Elimination Et Choix Traduisant la Realité (ELECTRE TRI) and a version of the weighted sum method simple additive weighting, applicable to the vector data model, have been established. The parameters and the classification system of Food and Agriculture Organization are used in this work. This approach has been tested on the area of Mleta in Algeria. Land suitability maps for durum wheat have been produced. Through the comparison between results obtained by these two methods and those available in a classical method, based on manual overlay procedures, it appears that optimistic procedure of the ELECTRE TRI method is better suited to the problem of land suitability for agriculture.     

Mining and spoiled land in Zambia: An example of conflicting land use in the third world

Mining of copper and other metals to a lesser extent is the mainstay of the Zambian economy. Copper is mined in the Copperbelt situated in the northern part of the country. It is not only the the most thickly populated part of the country but also the most urbanized. Urban centers developed with the mines as their nuclei and hence pose spatial problems between the needs of a rapidly increasing population on the one hand and the requirements of the mining industry on the other. The provision of raw material for the extractive industries is a geological one. Economic history shows the realization of these potentials and thirdly, lack of planning has permitted exploitation of minerals and dumping of wastes without much regard to reclamation. Spoilation of land by mining activity is mainly caused by the methods of mining as well as by the dumping of the solid and liquid wastes from the ore crushers and concentrators; while air pollution from sulphurdioxide and dust is from the smelters. Legislation has recently being enacted to regulate the dumping of wastes and for the reclamation of waste dumps. However, this has had only a minimal effect on the problem as yet. The soil from a dump which is ready for reclamation is analysed and methods of revegetating such a dump based on ecological principles is attempted. Finally, the conflict for land between the needs of a growing urban population and the requirements of the mining industry is discussed taking Kitwe, the capital of the Copperbelt as an example.     

可拓理论在矿区土地破坏程度评价中的应用

将矿区破坏土地、评价指标、指标现状结合为一体,利用可拓集理论,通过关联函数,给出了各评价指标影响矿区土地破坏程度的量化描述,进而确定了所选矿区土地的破坏程度,并结合Arcmap软件精确确定了不同破坏程度土地的面积;采用了集值统计的方法确定了物元特征权重,从而提高了评价的精确性;科学地确定了评价单元划分要求,使得评价结果更能指导实际工作,评价结果能够为矿区破坏土地的合理利用提供有利的依据,同时也证明了可拓理论在矿区土地破坏程度评价中的应用是可行的。     

Gis-aided land evaluation and decision-making for regulating urban expansion: A South African case study

A computerised aid to the land use planning process is demonstrated on the urban edge of Cape Town, South Africa. Multi-criteria analysis is performed in the IDRISI GIS package to evaluate development suitability for four land use categories according to appropriately measured and weighted criteria. The four suitability images are then subjected to multi-objective land allocation to demarcate optimum locations for each land use type. The decision-making process entails execution of seven consecutive steps which are discussed in detail and applied in the case study. Technical decisions are rationalised and results displayed. The paper concludes with a call for the development of applications which can incorporate public participation in this type of decision-making process to ensure the wider acceptance of advanced GIS technology as appropriate technology.     

Suitability assessment of urban land use in Dalian,China using PNN and GIS

Natural Hazards - The suitability assessment of land use is crucial to avoid wasting land resources. However, the traditional methods with subjective weights are prone to reduce the reasonability...     

基于GIS的岩溶煤矿区土地利用适宜性评价研究——以重庆市南桐矿区为例

以SPOT5卫星为基本信息获取该地区的地貌数据,并根据该地区的土地利用现状、土壤特征、煤炭开采状况等9个指标,采用多因素分级指标综合评价法对南桐矿区的土地利用适宜性进行评价。按照土地的用途划分宜耕、宜园和宜林土地类三个类型,根据影响因子对土地用途的影响程度制定分级指标。评价结果表明,高度适宜、中等适宜、基本适宜和不适宜耕地分别为5 321hm2、8361hm2、7 973hm2和4 656hm2;园地分别为315hm2、629hm2、405hm2 和117hm2;林地分别为8 867hm2、7303hm2、5 977hm2 和2 643hm2。为能更好地利用土地资源和促进矿区的可持续发展,建议将原来的耕地、园地和林业用地比例10∶ 0. 6∶ 9. 4调整为10∶ 5. 7∶ 14。      

基于GIS城镇土地利用防灾适宜性评价方法分析

城镇土地利用规划及城市建设应重视土地的防灾适宜性评价,由于地质灾害对人类的生命和财产造成了严重的危害,所以要从防灾的角度进行城镇土地利用适宜性评价。开发基于GIS城镇建设用地防灾适宜性评价方法,借助IDRISI软件,通过对比分析GIS-OWA与布尔决策和权重线性叠加（WLC）等多准则评价方法在决策策略上的区别,计算了唐山市地质灾害影响下的土地利用适宜度     

Siting MSW landfills with a weighted linear combination methodology in a GIS environment

Landfill has been taken to the bottom of the hierarchy of options for waste disposal but has been the most used method for urban solid waste disposal. However, landfill has become more difficult to implement because of its increasing cost, community opposition, and more restrictive regulations regarding the siting and operation of landfills. Land is a finite and scarce resource that needs to be used wisely. Appropriate allocation of landfills involves the selection of areas that are suitable for waste disposal. The present work describes a type of multi-criteria evaluation (MCE) method called weighted linear combination (WLC) in a GIS environment to evaluate the suitability of the study region for landfill. The WLC procedure is characterized by full tradeoff among all factors, average risk and offers much flexibility than the Boolean approaches in the decision making process. The relative importance weights of factors are estimated using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP). In the final aggregated suitability image, zones smaller than 20 hectares are eliminated from the allocation process. Afterwards, the land suitability of a zone is determined by calculating the average of the suitability of the cells belonging to that zone, a process called zonal land suitability. The application of the presented method to the Gorgan city (Iran) indicated that there are 18 zones for landfill with their zonal land suitability varying from 155.426117 to 64.149024. The zones were ranked in descending order by the value of their zonal land suitability. The results showed the use of GIS as a decision support system (DSS) available to policy makers and decision makers in municipal solid waste (MSW) management issues.     

基于能值理论的采煤沉陷区土地复垦行为分析

利用能值分析方法揭示采煤沉陷区土地复垦行为特征,为采煤沉陷区土地复垦决策和土地利用导向提供科学依据。以徐州城北矿区复垦区为例,采用野外试验与能值理论分析相结合的方法,对采煤沉陷区土地复垦前后能值变化进行分析。结果表明:土地复垦是以人的价值行为为导向、自然资源为依托、生态系统流为骨架,来实现和提升采煤沉陷区生态经济系统功能;以恢复和提高区域生产力为价值导向的土地复垦行为可有效提高区域和产品服务功能,年净增加能值361.61×1016 sej;复垦后土地用途增加一定面积的鱼塘和储水区,在满足生产需求的同时,可提高区域水分涵养功能,年净增加能值4.6×1016 sej;土地复垦行为是通过调整采煤沉陷区土地利用结构、土地利用布局和土地利用行为,以实现生态经济系统能量流动与转换来增加区域生态经济系统能值。      

长江三角洲经济区工业用地地质环境适宜性评价

在系统分析长江三角洲经济区地质条件与地质环境问题的基础上,深入研究了该地区工业用地与地质环境之间的相互关系,从而建立了基于工业用地的地质环境适宜性评价指标体系,并利用层次分析法确定指标权重,通过定性分析与定量计算相结合的方式,运用加权平均综合指数法对该地区的工业用地地质环境适宜程度进行综合评价。评价结果表明,长江三角洲经济区工业用地的地质环境适宜区及较适宜区占研究区陆域总面积的59%,总体情况较好。     

矿山地质灾害危险性指数探讨

矿山地质灾害危险性评估是一项新的工作,矿山范围的保护对象是矿山地质灾害危险性评估的价值取向．是矿产资源开发与地质环境保护的技术、经济和安全合理性的价值尺度。矿山地质灾害危险性指数是评价矿山开采适宜性非常重要的概念,矿山地质灾害危险性指数内涵及其分析方法的提出,对于一般性地认识矿山地质灾害的危险性有着重要的现实意义,为加强矿山地质环境指标体系研究开拓新的思路和方法。     

A new model of exact reclamation of post-mining land to address land acquisition problem in Indian coal mining industry

Indian coal mining industry is in transition phase with the growing demand of coal and is likely to escalate further with the need of ultra-mega power projects as well as announcement of smart cities projects. Although, there exist sufficient coal reserves in India, continuous acquisition and possession of coal bearing land is required to minimize the existing gap prevailing between coal demand and supply.The solution of the problem lies not only in modification of laws and policies of industry, but also in modification of mining engineering practices towards sustainable development. This paper critically examines the cause of the problem in the light of Indian laws and practices of the industry. In this paper a method of exact reclamation of post-mining land has been designed as a solution to make easier land acquisition by way of proposing a system of returning back the exact reclaimed land to its owners under corporate social responsibility activity of the industry. The proposed conceptual model of interlinking corporate social responsibility with land exchange will encourage sustainable development practice by mining engineers, and may turn around the public image of the industry.     

Ornamental stone potential areas for land use planning: a case study in a limestone massif from Portugal

Nowadays, the difficulties of the mining sector in accessing the territory are mostly related to inadequate land use plans. Mineral potential maps have become quite relevant for the land use planning authorities as a decision support tool. This work’s goal is to present a methodology based on geological criteria, for the delimitation of potential areas for ornamental stones production in a limestone area of Portugal known as Maciço Calcário Estremenho. This is one of the world’s most important regions producing limestone blocks for ornamental purposes. The methodology, applied at a scale similar to the commonly used in land use planning, considers two main geological-based criteria for the definition of potential areas, namely the homogeneity criterion, related to the textural and chromatic homogeneity of the potentially productive lithologic units, and the dimension criterion, which refers to the thickness of the productive unit, to the volume of the deposit and to its spatial layout. Based on the criteria, two main types of potential areas for ornamental stones’ production were delimited: specific areas, where the lithostratigraphic units demonstrate ornamental suitability at a very local scale due to highly appreciated particular features, and areas corresponding to the entire outcrop area of some of the lithostratigraphic units, which due to the resource volume are the most relevant potential areas.     

Experimental comparison of support vector machines with random forests for hyperspectral image land cover classification

The performances of regular support vector machines and random forests are experimentally compared for hyperspectral imaging land cover classification. Special characteristics of hyperspectral imaging dataset present diverse processing problems to be resolved under robust mathematical formalisms such as image classification. As a result, pixel purity index algorithm is used to obtain endmember spectral responses from Indiana pine hyperspectral image dataset. The generalized reduced gradient optimization algorithm is thereafter executed on the research data to estimate fractional abundances in the hyperspectral image and thereby obtain the numeric values for land cover classification. The Waikato environment for knowledge analysis (WEKA) data mining framework is selected as a tool to carry out the classification process by using support vector machines and random forests classifiers. Results show that performance of support vector machines is comparable to that of random forests. This study makes a positive contribution to the problem of land cover classification by exploring generalized reduced gradient method, support vector machines, and random forests to improve producer accuracy and overall classification accuracy. The performance comparison of these classifiers is valuable for a decision maker to consider tradeoffs in method accuracy versus method complexity.     

Environmental Economics and the Mining Industry: Monetary benefits of an abandoned quarry rehabilitation in Greece

During the last decades legislative actions on environmental issues have dramatically increased all over the world. The impacts of environmental legislation on the mining sector are quite significant. Although an extensive list of legislation exists, this paper focuses on an issue that currently has a significant influence on the mining industry: natural resource damage assessment and, in particular, the valuation of non-market goods. Therefore, the basic elements of the most important valuation methods are outlined and a demonstrative example is presented, in the context of appraising a reclamation scheme of an abandoned quarry site. The analysis is fairly general, and it does not intend to comprise either a complete introduction to environmental economics or a comprehensive presentation of valuation techniques. Still, it provides an idea of how these methods can be applied to mining issues. Further, the findings may prove useful to practitioners and mining managers, providing information about the monetary benefits of mined land reclamation that could contribute to sound decision- and policy-making.     

煤矿采空区场地建筑适宜性工程地质研究方法

简述了煤矿采空区场地存在的工程地质问题；提出了查明采空区场地工程地质条件的现场勘察和室内模拟研究方法。并结合采空区活化特点，对采空区场地建筑适宜性作了分析；提出了地基处理和建筑物防护措施