Abstract
Environmental conflict management gains significance in rational use of natural resources, ecosystem preservation and environmental planning for mineral mines. In Central Coast Vietnam, titan mines are subject to conflicting use and management decisions. The paper deals with an empirical research on applying a combination of the fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the fuzzy Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to measure environmental conflicts emerging as a result of titan mining in Vietnam. The methodology used in the paper combines the fuzzy AHP and the fuzzy TOPSIS to rank environmental conflicts and propose conflict prevention solutions in the titan mining industry of Ky Khang coastal commune (Ky Anh district, Central Coast Vietnam). Data was collected by using a questionnaire with 15 locals, 8 communal authorities, 2 district authorities, and 12 scientific experts on titan mining, environmental geology, and sustainability management. The result shows that, titan mining conflicts with the eight criteria of economic sectors at five alternative sites including beach, protected forest, agricultural area, settlement area, and industrial area. The conflicts between titan mining and forestry, agriculture, settlements, fishing and aquaculture are highly valued. The beach area shows most environmental conflict as a result of titan mining, followed by the agricultural area and settlement area. Based on the empirical findings, legal and procedural tools such as environmental impact assessments, strategic environmental assessments, integrated coastal zone management, marine spatial planning, and multi-planning integration advancing environmental management for titan mines in Vietnam are suggested.
Highlights
Environmental conflicts, which originate as a result of environmental pollutions, resource use competition, and social conflicts, emerge when stakeholders take part in activities with contradictory interests, values, power, perceptions, and goals
In the considered case study, in the area of Ky Khang, couples of environmental conflicts between the titan mining industry and other economic sectors are found across conflict hotspots
Since titan mining is popular along the coast, it conflicts with the eight criteria of sectors at the five alternatives sites
Summary
Environmental conflicts, which originate as a result of environmental pollutions, resource use competition, and social conflicts, emerge when stakeholders take part in activities with contradictory interests, values, power, perceptions, and goals. Environmental conflicts cover different issues: Biodiversity conflicts [1,2,3], coastal zone conflicts [4,5,6,7], air pollution conflicts [8], land use conflicts [9,10], and water conflicts [11,12,13,14]. Environmental conflict is considered in relation to economic, Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 2930 development and social issues in the context of global climate change [15,16]. Environmental conflicts challenge the economic security at both local, regional, national, and global scales [17,18]
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