Reassessing the past environmental damages within abandoned natural resource deposits

Abstract

During the development of natural resource deposits, significant industrial impacts result in technogenesis, i.e. the formation of technogenic terrains and habitats, as well as land transformation. These result from the adverse impacts of the mining industry on the environment and lead to the formation of disturbed, degraded, and polluted lands. The Ural Federal District features a prominent mining industry. The development of underground and open-cut mining facilities involves damages, including the economic, social, and environmental losses for the communities and the nature. Accounting for such damages is crucial today for the mining territories of the Urals. Assessing the economic damages incurred by the communities and the nature caused by mining companies helped determine the monetary costs of the damages associated with economic activities, develop relevant and efficient environmental protection activities, and prevent industrial hazards associated with the mining industry. To assess the economic damages associated with economic activities, we developed a number of official and conventional techniques based on the actual concentrations of pollutants and other elements in the environment (air, soil, water, and biological entities).