Environmental impact assessment of open pit mining in Iran

Mining is widely regarded as having adverse effects on environment of both magnitude and diversity. Some of these effects include erosion, formation of sinkhole, biodiversity loss and contamination of groundwater by chemical from the mining process in general and open-pit mining in particular. As such, a repeatable process to evaluate these effects primarily aims to diminish them. This paper applies Folchi method to evaluate the impact of open-pit mining in four Iranian mines that lacked previous geo-environmental assessment. Having key geologic resources, these mines are: Mouteh gold mine, Gol-e-Gohar and Chogart iron mines, and Sarcheshmeh copper mine. The environmental components can be defined as public health and safety, social relationships, air and water quality, flora and fauna hence, various impacting factors from the mining activities were estimated for each environmental component. For this purpose, each impacting factor was first given a magnitude, based solely on the range of possible scenarios. Thereafter, a matrix of weighted factors was derived to systematically quantify and normalize the effects of each impacting factor. The overall impact upon each individual environmental component was then calculated by summing the weighted rates. Here, Folchi method was applied to evaluate those environmental conditions. Based on the acquired results, the present paper finally concludes that amongst four case histories in Iran, Sarcheshmeh copper mine significantly affects the environment, with critical level of air pollution there.     

Hydraulic barrier function of the underground continuous concrete wall in the pit of subway station and its optimization

Subway traffic is now being developed in China on a large scale and the planning subway stations are often located in dense district with tall building. The dewatering of confined aquifer may cause ground settlement, the cracking, deformation and tilting of the building, and even collapse. Combing with the dewatering project of environment protection of the pit of Yishan Road station of Shanghai subway No. 9, through the inversion of seepage parameters based on the field pumping test, the hydraulic barrier function of the underground continuous wall is simulated. The result indicates that with the reduction of the exposed length of the filter tube and the increase of that enclosed, the drawdown of the confined aquifer decreases. Especially with the increase of the enclosed length of the filter tube, the drawdown outside the pit can be controlled effectively. According to the result of the numerical simulation, the design of the continuous concrete wall of the pit for Shanghai Subway No. 9 is altered and the depth of the continuous concrete wall of the standing part and that in the end well are increased to 61 and 62 m, respectively. The monitored result of the equal drawdown pumping test indicates that the drawdown outside the pit with a distance of 1–6 m to the wall is less than 2 m; It means that there is nearly no influence on the environment around the pit during dewatering.     

An example of the effects of anthropogenic changes on natural environment in the Apulian karst (southern Italy)

This paper examines a case study regarding a site in the Murge karst (Apulia, southern Italy) where, in the course of time, anthropogenic activity has caused significant damage to the natural landscape and environment, also in terms of loss of human lives. The study site comprises the city of Bari and the neighbouring towns, belonging to the same catchment basin, which is characterised by a low-relief karst very rich in natural cavities and dry valleys, the latter locally called lame. From the second half of the 1500s until today, in the whole area, short rainfall storms (lasting less than 6 h) with disastrous and mortal consequences have been recorded many times. In the last decades, human activities, such as urbanization, stone clearing for agricultural purposes, quarrying and deforestation induced severe changes in the karst landscape causing the modification of the surficial and underground drainage. In particular, an examination is made of the factors causing the complete destruction of the “di Maso” Park on the night between 22 and 23 October 2005, in consequence of a high-intensity rainfall (152.6 mm in a 6-h period) accompanied by flash flooding. Finally, the need for a better understanding of natural processes and patterns in karst areas, and the interactions with human activities through to the development of environmental management systems ensuring further steps towards sustainable development is remarked.     

How to speak for aquifers and people at the same time: Environmental justice and counter-network formation at a hazardous waste site

A common source of conflict at hazardous waste sites in the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund program is the accuracy of scientific investigations and representations produced to inform cleanup decisions. Liable firms often produce these technical representations themselves, and communities surrounding sites frequently argue that such “voluntary” investigations are compromised by conflicts of interest. In order to challenge the representations of powerful firms, locally situated actors often develop trans-local connections with expertise and equipment concentrated at distant centers of calculation. Although some interpret the spatial politics of such connecting in terms of “jumping scales,” another important spatial dimension of this network construction is differential positioning. In a conflict over groundwater models at the St. Regis Superfund Site in Minnesota, the counter-network that emerged to challenge the owner’s representations of the site positioned some actors as “outsiders” and others as “insiders.” This differential positioning enabled the counter-network to balance the need to demonstrate the reliability and impartiality of its claims with the requirement to maintain its accountability to local public interests. I argue that these requirements result from the prevalent view of the science-policy interface, which assumes a rigid separation between science and politics. Nonetheless, the conflict over groundwater at St. Regis reveals how at the science-policy interface, speaking for things and speaking for people are thoroughly entangled.     

Rethinking the nature of urban environmental politics: Security, subjectivity, and the non-human

The growing field of urban political ecology (UPE) has greatly advanced understandings of the socio-ecological transformations through which urban economies and environments are produced. However, this field has thus far failed to fully consider subjective (and subject-forming) dimensions of urban environmental struggle. I argue that this can be overcome through bringing urban political ecology into conversation with both post-structural political ecology and critical geopolitics. Bridging these literatures focuses attention on practices of socio-ecological exclusion and attachment through which environmental subjectivities are formed. This argument is drawn out through a case study of the politics of local economic development and conservation within the watershed of the Big Darby Creek near Columbus, Ohio. This struggle was driven by a preservationist movement that coalesced around a shared understanding of socio-ecological hybridity as a source of metaphysical insecurity. Hybridity appears here as a site of political and ethical struggle over social and ecological exclusions produced in the pursuit of security. This case study demonstrates a paradox of environmental politics: the non-human is at once a site of constituent possibilities for identity and subjectivity as well as forces which seek to foreclose this radical openness. Recognizing the paradoxical nature of environmental struggle allows for a more complex and nuanced account of the multifarious forces that shape the formation of environmental subjectivities.     

Geochemical hazard evaluation of sulphide-rich iron mines: The Rio Marina district (Elba Island,Italy)

Rio Marina mining district (Elba Island) is characterised by hematite + pyrite ore association and was exploited for iron till 1981, leaving waste rock dumps of several millions m³. The effect of open pit mining activity in this site is to produce acid mine drainage (AMD) processes leading to environmental pollution, testified by all the sampled waters (Giove stream, drainage channels, superficial pools and settling basin) which have pH values ranging from 2.08 to 3.35 and heavy metal concentrations that reach 903.16 mg/l for Fe, 45.02 mg/l for Mn, 10.08 mg/l for Zn and 1.75 mg/l for Cu. In the present work a space and time related approach to geochemical hazard evaluation was applied. The geochemical hazard is mainly related to high heavy metal concentration, acid mine drainage processes development and topographic setting. As all these parameters are related in space, hazard evaluation was performed by geostatistical methods. Fifty-four earth material samples (residual soils, waste rocks or debris materials) were collected in a central aligned 100 m mesh square grid. These were analysed for major elements by XRF, for Cu, Pb, Zn by ICP-AES and for AMD potential following the AMIRA procedure. The concentration of heavy metals was compared with Italian law limits. The overlap of Cu, Pb and Zn content maps show that at least one of these heavy metals exceed law limits in all the area. The AMD test results show that more than 50% of samples have a positive NAPP (Net Acid Producing Potential) that could reach 258.9 kg H₂SO₄/t. According to the obtained data, three main geochemical hazard classes were established and their distribution in the mining area was assessed. About 51% of the mining area surface belongs to the major hazard class, where AMD process occurs, about 49% belongs to an intermediate hazard class, where AMD process could occur only if certain conditions are met. Finally, the persistence of the AMD process in the Rio Marina area was evaluated on the basis of yearly rainfall, mining waters pH and NAPP values. A complete leaching of the first 0.25 m of the earth materials can retain the current environmental conditions for several centuries.     

Something in the Air: Civic science and contentious environmental politics in post-apartheid South Africa

The emergence of an environmental movement in post-apartheid South Africa has involved the reframing of the environment as a ‘brown’ issue, articulating the discourse of social and environmental justice and a rights-based notion of democracy. Environmental movements have pursued a dual strategy of deliberation and activist opposition. Environmental movements have deployed science to pursue the strategic task of democratic opposition and have established networks of environmental knowledge and expertise. Ecological modernization is the dominant approach to environmental governance and adopts a science-based policy approach. In this context the regulation and management of the environment is premised on the need for science, which provides the authoritative basis for a regulatory response. In local environmental movements, there exists a fundamental tension between a cumulative history of lay knowledge about pollution and the lack of official acknowledgement of qualitative narratives. This is accompanied by a lack and suspicion of reliable official data. Environmental movements have thus employed ‘civic science’ strategically to place the issue of air pollution on the political agenda. This paper uses the case of environmental politics in Durban to reflect on the ways in which civic science and lay knowledge, together constituting community hybrid knowledge, are produced and disseminated in order to pressure the state and capital. The three ways in which knowledge is deployed are: to frame environmental problems, in strategies of oppositional advocacy, and in deliberative policy forums. Empirical analysis shows that civic science is produced through knowledge networks, and both lay knowledge and civic science are opportunistically used by environmental movements to engage both inside and outside formal policy making arenas. This deployment of hybrid knowledge by environmental movements represents a broader challenge to the power of science and technology based on increasing evidence of the hazards and risks facing ordinary people in their daily lives.     

Urban environmental services and the state in East Africa; between neo-developmental and network governance approaches

Although governments are generally expected to provide environmental services such as sanitation and solid waste collection for their citizens, most (municipal) governments in Sub-Saharan Africa seem hardly able to take up this task. Without ignoring the lack of material resources resulting from poverty, there are other structural causes for this failure as well and related to the role of the state. Since independence, the state in Africa has been debated in political as well as in academic circles and opposing views can still be discerned today. While some promote a strong interventionist state which can effectively enhance development, others consider introducing network governance by involving various societal actors in combination with different levels of government a more promising alternative. After presenting an historical overview, in this paper I will summarize this debate and discuss future options for East African authorities for providing more effective and sustainable urban environmental infrastructures and services.     

On the Elimination of Bias Averaging-Errors in Proxy Records

Knowledge of and insight into past environmental conditions can be obtained by processing and analyzing proxies. The proxies need to be processed as precisely and accurately as possible, otherwise the conclusion of the analysis will be biased. A calibration method which reduces bias errors in the proxy measurements due to averaging is presented. Sampling with nonzero sample sizes causes an averaging of the true proxy signal over the volume of the sample. The method is applied on a linear synthetic record which results in an optimal correction for frequency components ranging from the dc-frequency (DC) to one half of the sample frequency (f _s /2). Next, the method is tested on non-linear synthetic data where the signal is reconstructed reasonably well. Finally, the method is applied to a real vessel density record of R. mucronata from Makongeni, Kenya, and to a real delta deuterium record of ice core EDC from dome C, Antarctica. The method discussed in this paper is a valuable tool for the calibration of proxy measurements; it can be applied as a correction for low resolution measurements and expanded to other types of samples and proxies. Working with small sample sizes (high resolution) amounts to working near the detection limit, where the signal-to-noise-ratio is low. This correction method provides an alternative in which low resolution measurements can be upgraded to minimize the loss of information due to larger sample sizes.     

Standardizing sustainable development? The Forest Stewardship Council’s plantation policy review process as neoliberal environmental governance

Trans-nationally-scaled, multi-stakeholder, non-governmental product certification systems are emerging as important elements of neoliberal environmental governance. However, analysts question the extent to which they represent effective alternatives to the damaging impacts of neoliberalized, global production. They call for work examining the environmental politics arising in these new arenas of regulation, where social movements advocating environmental conservation and social justice interact with business interests in debates over how to use neoliberal tools to govern global commodity chains. This article examines The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) process to revise tree plantation certification standards. First, it considers the political process surrounding standard-setting and argues that tensions between rigor, legitimacy, and acceptability restrain the political struggles over standards within voluntary, multi-stakeholder environmental governance organizations. It proffers findings at odds with the expectation that mainstreaming diminishes the rigor of social and environmental standards. Second, it speculates on the implications of this form of neoliberal environmental governance for promoting more sustainable productions of nature. The review process failed to adequately consider the role of plantation certification in strategies for natural forest conservation. Neither did it adequately consider vital questions of the appropriate scale and location of production, the community actors best suited to deliver both forest conservation and poverty alleviation, or the need to encourage reduced consumption. The reliance on a neoliberal framework and values limits the scope of action. These contradictions suggest that FSC certification is an important part of what needs to be a broader movement questioning current practices of environmentally damaging production and complicit, complacent, consumption.