Ecological-Geologic Risks Related to the Development of Resource Regions

Abstract

The ecological functions and features of the geologic environment are investigated in terms of environmental geology. The current status of the geologic medium is characterized as a crisis, and the issues of its protection and rehabilitation are not appropriately addressed in environmental protection activity of the state and businesses. The most critical ecological-geologic risks include destruction and deformation of geologic strata, huge amounts of industrial waste, oil spills, landscape and soil degradation, air and surface water pollution, seismic and mudflow phenomena, etc. Mining operations have the greatest negative influence on the environmental parameters of the geologic medium. Inadequate attention to issues related to the present state and protection of the geologic medium leads to accidents and crises in industrial installations. Ecological-geologic hazard hotspots have emerged in areas of intense extraction and processing of mineral raw materials. On the other hand, the environmental component of active mineral resource use is neglected when formulating the prospects for a further development of resource regions. The country’s major mining companies, active participants of the world market of mineral resources, are the most proficient in sustainable mineral resource use. In recent years, Russia saw a large-scale improvement of environmental legislation. Many legal innovations focusing on the preservation of the geologic medium are scattered among different laws. The legal and financial preconditions for the ecologization of mineral resource use are examined. The state plays a key role to stimulate the sustainable mining, processing and transportation of useful minerals. It has to change significantly the system to support the geologic medium protection.