Geo-environmental Impact Research Articles

A Comprehensive Review on Mining Subsidence and its Geo-environmental Impact

Over the course of several decades, subsidence has exerted a notable impact on the mining sector. The preponderance of subsidence occurrences is evident within coal mines. Remote sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have emerged as principal instruments for the evaluation and characterization of subsidence phenomena. The manifestation of mininginduced subsidence engenders concerns encompassing roof collapse, infrastructural damage, and the formidable challenge of preserving human lives. The repercussions of mining-related subsidence extend to indigenous flora and subterranean water reservoirs. This phenomenon critically impedes the sustainable advancement of mining zones, precipitates the depletion of natural reservoirs, and engenders a host of ecological and environmental predicaments that cast an adverse influence on socio-economic dynamics. Within mining contexts, subsidence manifests as both vertical and horizontal ground displacement, presenting as fissures, depressions, troughs, and sinkholes. The present article furnishes a comparative discourse on diverse methodologies harnessed for the assessment of mining-induced subsidence. The scholarly community has employed a repertoire of eight predominant techniques, as delineated in the conclusive remarks of this study. Over the bygone two decades, considerable strides have been taken, enabling the deployment of sophisticated paradigms, such as remote sensing and GIS, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), and Differential Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (DiNSAR), for the identification and quantification of land subsidence phenomena.

A brief review paper on mining subsidence and its geo-environmental impact

For the past several decades subsidence has had a significant effect on the mining industry. Majority of the mining subsidence shows in the coal mines. Remote sensing and GIS has been one of the major tools for the estimation and determining the subsidence. Mining subsidence lead us to roof collapse, infrastructure loss and loss of life is a huge concern. Native vegetation and underground water was effected by the mining subsidence. It severely hinders the sustainable development of mining areas, depletes natural resources, and causes a number of ecological and environmental challenges that have a negative influence on social and economic conditions. Subsidence in mines entails in vertical and horizontal movement of ground and it forms in cracks, troughs or sag and sinkhole subsidence. This paper provides a comparative discussion of various techniques employed for assessing mining-induced subsidence and its effects on the surrounding environment. The research community has employed eight major methods as identified in this study's concluding remarks. Over the past two decades, significant progress has been achieved, enabling the implementation of advanced approaches such as remote sensing and GIS, LiDAR, and DiNSAR to detect land subsidence.

Geo-Environmental and Human Health Impact of Spent Lithium-ion Battery Waste and its Recycling: A Critical Review

Geo-Environmental and Human Health Impact of Spent Lithium-ion Battery Waste and its Recycling: A Critical Review

A Geo-environmental Impact Assessment of Abattoir Effluent Discharge on Groundwater Quality in Igoba Area of Ondo State, Nigeria

Assessment of groundwater resource around an abattoir site in Igoba area of Ondo State, southwestern Nigeria has been carried out, within 1.3 km radius from the abattoir site in order to determine the influence of the effluents discharge on quality of groundwater in the area, so as to forestall outbreak of diseases that can endanger human health. Eleven water samples were analyzed for physical, chemical and microbial parameters; and result subjected to spatial and statistical analysis using analysis of variance and Duncan’s multiple range of variance. The obtained parameters mean ± SD are pH (5.5±0.50), turbidity (10±5.9 NTU), temperature (27.75±0.35 °C), conductivity (240±105.99µs/cm), total dissolved solid (158.9±46.8 mg/L), total hardness (92.1±14.2 mg/L), nitrate (7.3±4.3 mg/L), iron (0.24±0.04 mg/L), total alkalinity (14.57±4.87 mg/L), manganese (0.017±0.0079 mg/L), calcium (26.53±8.7 mg/L), magnesium (12.20±8.1 mg/L), chloride (21.86±7.39 mg/L), sodium (14.71±4.85 mg/L), bicarbonate (13.95±4.48 mg/L), nitrite (0.0336±0.0269 mg/L), dissolved oxygen (1.82±0.52 mg/L), chemical oxygen demand (133.1±53.7 mg/L), biological oxygen demand (29.55±10.93 mg/L), total coliform (9.36±6.05 cfu/100ml) and E.coli (0.5090±0.4700 cfu/100ml). The analysis of variance showed that statistically significant difference occurs among the parameters (p<0.05). All the measured parameters are within the standard limits of WHO and FEPA standards except pH, turbidity, BOD, and total coliform for samples collected within 610 m proximate distance from the site. This contamination is strongly aided by topography of the environment, as the discharged effluents/waste water flows westward and southwardly. Subsequently there is need for proper water treatment and environmental sanitation to prevent outbreak of epidemics and infections, while the government should enforce thorough regulations guiding establishment and operation of abattoir in the site if it can’t be relocated.

Vegetation health conditions assessment and mapping using AVIRIS-NG hyperspectral and field spectroscopy data for -environmental impact assessment in coal mining sites

This paper focuses on vegetation health conditions (VHC) assessment and mapping using high resolution airborne hyperspectral AVIRIS-NG imagery and validated with field spectroscopy-based vegetation spectral data. It also quantified the effect of mining on vegetation health for geo-environmental impact assessment at a fine level scale. In this study, we have developed and modified vegetation indices (VIs) based model for VHC assessment and mapping in coal mining sites. We have used thirty narrow banded VIs based on the statistical measurement for suitable VIs identification. The highest Pearson's r, R2, lowest RMSE, and P values indices have been used for VIs combined pixels analysis. The highest different (Healthy vs. unhealthy) vegetation combination index (VCI) has been selected for VHC assessment and mapping. We have also compared VIs model-based VHC results to ENVI (software) forest health tool and Spectral-based SAM classification results. The 1st VCI result showed the highest difference (72.07%) from other VCI. The AUC values of the ROC curve have shown a better fit for the VIs model (0.79) than Spectral classification (0.74), and ENVI FHT (0.68) based on VHC results. The VHC results showed that unhealthy vegetation classes are located at low distances from mine sites, and healthy vegetation classes are situated at high distances. It is also seen that there is a highly significant positive relationship (R2 =0.70) between VHC classes and distance from mines. These results will provide a guideline for geo-environmental impact assessment in coal mining sites.

Reducing the geo-environmental impact of halite waste storage

Reducing the geo-environmental impact of halite waste storage

30 Years Climate Change Impact on Weather Elements and Green Coverage: GIS and Remote Sensing Geo-Environmental Case Study in Jordan

This study deals with climate change and its geo-environmental impact in Jordan for thirty years period (1982-2012). It comprised the building of a geographic information system (GIS) database for the most important basic climatic elements of temperature, rainfall, and relative humidity. Data is obtained from the Meteorological Department of Jordan for the study period. Digital descriptive and statistical analysis methods for the GIS database are implemented using ArcGIS 10.4 software and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index extracted from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer satellite images to forecast that impact on weather elements and green vegetation cover, respectively. Three different criteria are used for analysis and verification to achieve the objectives of the study. The criteria are the average annual minimum and maximum temperature, which is considered the most important criterion for this study, average annual rainfall, and average annual relative humidity. Results showed a speedy increase in the annual rate of the local temperature, particularly since 1990. Despite the local temperatures' average volatility, the increment reached about 1.5-2.0 oC degrees Celsius. An increase in the relative humidity is observed, but with no evident change in the average annual rainfall, both in Jordan's northern and eastern parts. At the same time, there were increases for Jordan's central region during the period 1985-2012. The green vegetation cover area showed a decrease during the studied period 2002-2008 as that is probably due to the evident increase in annual average temperature and evaporation. Results reveal the increase of the greater temperature change region has increased in the northern part of Jordan by eight times for the 1982-2002 period as mentioned in this study. The area of vegetated area decreased to 3725.8 km² in 2008 compared to 9305.5 km² in 2002. The study demonstrated efficiency in applying descriptive and statistical GIS analysis methods on the climatic database, which better understanding of the climate change phenomenon.

Geo-environmental impact assessment of rock-cutting activities on the mountainous urban areas, western Saudi Arabia

This study evaluates the geo-environmental impacts of ongoing rock-cutting activities on the environment and the health of the residents in Makkah city, Saudi Arabia. The total quantity of rock-cuttings from one site was estimated using satellite data, a special algorithm, and mathematical models as 280,000 m3, which represents a large amount of rock debris from one excavation site. These debris were ultimately dumped into arid valleys. Rock-cutting processes also release a high percentage of silica dust particles (crystalline silica) and, in some cases, radon and some radioactive elements that cause alarming air pollution. Air pollutants percentage (PM2.5) reached 624 ppm and noise levels were estimated as 81 dB, which is above the acceptable limits. The total radiation intensity in the rock-cutting process areas showed normal levels, in the range of 34 milli-Roentgen/h. Conversely, inhaled dust in Mina area ranged between 35 and 190 μg/m3. The results showed also that the silica concentrations in Mina area ranged between 0.8 and 14 μg/m3, with an average concentration of 7.8 μg/m3. Medical geological and geo-biological simulations of the air pollutant hazards on human enzymes showed a notable 3B75 co-crystal form, which was characterized as glycated human hemoglobin. The ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys at the rock-cutting sites showed cracks and joints in the subterranean layering near the excavated areas, which were most likely caused by rock-cutting processes.

Geo-environmental monitoring and 3D finite elements stability analysis for site investigation of underground monuments. Horemheb tomb (KV57), Luxor, Egypt

The Valley of the Kings (KV) is a UNESCO world heritage site with more than thirty opened tombs. Since the first tombs were constructed, at least 24 historical flash flood events has been identified, each of which has been contributed to the destruction and deterioration of the tombs. Recently, most of these tombs have been damaged and inundated after 1994 flood. In order to understand the Geo-environmental impact mainly the past flash floods due to the intensive rainfall storm on the valley of kings and the long-term rock mass behavior under geostatic stresses in selected Horemheb tomb (KV57) and its impact on past failures and current stability, Remote sensing, GIS, LIDAR, 3D finite element stability analysis and rock mass quality assessments had been carried out using advanced methods and codes. Our work provides environmental satellite space views via landviewer Erath Observation System (EOS) Platform with passive and active sensors which include the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), Atmospherically resistant vegetation index (ARVI), Green Chlorophyll Index (GCI), Normalized Burn Ratio (NBR), Normalized Difference Snow Index (NDSI), Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) images, Terrain (DEM) Digital Elevation Models, 3D geological maps. In other hand experimental and numerical geotechnical evaluations and modeling of the rock mass of these underground structures and their surroundings have been executed. We estimated the rock mass quality of the different members within the Thebes limestone and Esna shale formations using the mechanical testing and Rock Mass Rating (RMR), rock quality system (Q-system) and Geological Strength Index (GSI) systems. Our recent analyses show that the KV57 rock- cut tomb at Luxor has been cut into poor to very poor quality marl shale masses due to the impact of flash foods. Rock failures of ceilings and pillars were frequently facilitated by local, unfavorably oriented persistent discontinuities, such as tension cracks and faults. Other failures were related to the disintegration of the marl limestone and Esna shale Formations into individual nodules upon weathering. Our data suggest that, in ancient Egypt monumental tomb construction, low-strength rock masses rarely resulted in modifications of the planned tomb design in order to minimise the risk of rock falls and to prevent collapses. The current flood protection measures are not enough. For this two following measures are proposed 1—to rise the current wall by 50 cm. 2—to fill the depression by reshaping bathymetry.

Geo-Environmental Changes and Their Impact on the Development of the Limestone Plateau, West of Assiut, Egypt

One of the important projects that the Egypt country seeks to implement is the desert areas development, which contributes significantly to agricultural and urban development. Development of desert areas, especially agricultural development, should be carried out scientifically in terms of the use of available water resources, irrigation methods according to the type of soil and taking the geo-environmental risks into consideration. The objective of this research is to assess the geo-environmental impact in the region under consideration and their effect on their natural components during their development phases. Estimating the rate of land-use/land-cover changes in the area is extremely important for the management of natural resources. Remote sensing and GIS techniques have been used to process the geological, topographical, land-use/land-cover and also locating high-risk areas that could be affected by flash flooding. This study showed that the study area comprises three land-cover classes: urban, agricultural and barren land. The expansion in the agricultural and residential areas was estimated from the Landsat satellite images from 1984 to 2018. The results had deduced the reasons for increasing the agricultural area and the validity of the western plateau lands for agricultural reclamation as well as land investment for residential projects such as Nasser city. The results indicate that the vegetated land increased by 9.68% and urban land by 3.17% after reclamation efforts were initiated.

Identifying Countries for Regional Cooperation in Low Carbon Growth: A Geo-environmental Impact Index

This paper proposes a new geo-environmental Impact index to quantify the implications and dynamics for a country to join in a regional cooperation for low carbon growth (LCG) in Asia. The index helps differentiating the countries according to risk dissemination and risk assimilation categories, which are so crucial in framing effective LCG policies. Empirical results reveal that under the proposed grand regional bloc comprising of 20 Asian countries, eight countries are identified as predominantly geo-environmental risk assimilators, one risk neutral, while the rest of the countries are identified as predominantly risk disseminators. Empirical results also show that synergy effect is evident in all the regional or sub-regional groupings. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the proposed grand regional bloc would yield higher possibility for reducing CO2 emissions in the respective countries as compared to the actions taken by separate sub-regional groupings. The proposed model can also be used as an imperative tool in resolving the regional disputes under the climate change negotiations.

Geoenvironmental characteristics of bisphenol A contaminated soil after persulfate treatment with different activation/enhancement methods.

Persulfate (PSF) is a strong oxidant that has been used extensively in the In-Situ Chemical Oxidation (ISCO) technology. The geoenvironmental impact of PSF treatment is barely investigated. This situation should be carefully considered as it may affect the reutilization of contaminated soil as engineering materials. This paper studied the removal of bisphenol A (BPA) by PSF with Nano Zero-Valent Iron (nZVI) and percarbonate (SPC) activated/enhanced and their subsequent impacts on the engineering properties of soil. The physicochemical and geotechnical properties of soils before and after treatment were evaluated using batch experiments. The results indicate that the introduced pristine PSF can be activated by some naturally occurring matters and subsequently lead to the mineralization of BPA. Both non-activated PSF and activated/enhanced PSF treatment led to the soil improvement in the undrained shear strength at different degrees. The primary mechanism of soil improvement is ascribed to the heterogeneous sulfate and/or carbonate precipitation. Meanwhile, Ca2+ in the pore fluid played a significant role in the enhancement of the soil strength. A conclusion was drawn that the treatment of both non-activated PSF, nZVI- and SPC-activated PSF treatment can achieve removal of BPA and soil improvement in the short-term simultaneously. This study can improve the PSF-involved remediation of brownfields and dredged sediments for a sustainable and low-carbon society.

Geo-Environmental and Structural Problems of the First Successful True Pyramid, (Snefru Northern Pyramid) in Dahshur, Egypt

Significantly, Snefru northern pyramid is the first successful true complete Pyramid was built in Egypt. It has suffered from different kinds of geo-environmental impact and other mechanical and dynamic actions; aspects of structural deficiency and building material decay are recorded and monitored. The scope of this pilot study is to ensure the structure stability and weathering vulnerability of the building materials of Snefru northern pyramid under different environmental, geotechnical and seismic loading conditions. It has been achieved through the following steps: (1) Evaluation of the building materials; includes the integrated petrography study, petro-physical and geo-mechanical testing (2) Estimations of relevant factors affecting these building materials (3) integrated modeling of the pyramid geo-environment conditions. The present study reveals that the Snefru pyramid is considered the only composite pyramid structure, which is composed of local Dolomitic sandstone body blocks which had been quarried from Dahshur plateau, and joining with pure hydraulic lime mortars and covered with imported casing limestone layers from Tura Formations. Stripped from its limestone casing, this pyramid reveals the reddish sandstone used to build its core. This explains its modern-day name, the red Pyramid. The detailed analytical study proved that this important monument present poor engineering properties and low safety factors for both static and seismic loading. The present study indicates the dependence of the mechanical properties on the petro-physical and the geochemical properties of the studied construction materials. Modeling the properties indicates a reliable correlation between the different parameters. Consequently a well-focused strengthening and retrofitting program is deemed necessary.

Geo-environmental and structural problems of the first successful true pyramid, (Snefru northern pyramid) in Dahshur, Egypt

Significantly, Snefru northern pyramid is the first successful true complete Pyramid was built in Egypt. It has suffered from different kinds of geo-environmental impact and other mechanical and dynamic actions; aspects of structural deficiency and building material decay are recorded and monitored. The scope of this pilot study is to ensure the structure stability and weathering vulnerability of the building materials of Snefru northern pyramid under different environmental, geotechnical and seismic loading conditions. It has been achieved through the following steps: (1) Evaluation of the building materials; includes the integrated petrography study, petro-physical and geo-mechanical testing (2) Estimations of relevant factors affecting these building materials (3) integrated modeling of the pyramid geo-environment conditions. The present study reveals that the Snefru pyramid is considered the only composite pyramid structure, which is composed of local Dolomitic sandstone body blocks which had been quarried from Dahshur plateau, and joining with pure hydraulic lime mortars and covered with imported casing limestone layers from Tura Formations. Stripped from its limestone casing, this pyramid reveals the reddish sandstone used to build its core. This explains its modern-day name, the red Pyramid. The detailed analytical study proved that this important monument present poor engineering properties and low safety factors for both static and seismic loading. The present study indicates the dependence of the mechanical properties on the petro-physical and the geochemical properties of the studied construction materials. Modeling the properties indicates a reliable correlation between the different parameters. Consequently a well-focused strengthening and retrofitting program is deemed necessary.

Geo-environmental impact assessment of Jinshazhou area in Guangzhou City

ABSTRACTThe geo-environmental impact of anthropogenic activities in Jinshazhou area is predicted by assessing the geo-environmental problems susceptibility under the condition of nature and anthropogenic activities in the study. An evaluation factor system including natural and anthropogenic factors is setup and the principal component analysis-fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model is selected. Results are shown in four grades, including very low, low, high, and very high. Under the natural condition, the very low, low, high, and very high susceptible regions of geo-environmental problems take up 67.73%, 0.71%, 7.30%, and 24.26%, respectively. Under the condition of anthropogenic activities, the very low, low, high, and very high susceptible regions of geo-environmental problems take up 69.18%, 5.88%, 5.88%, and 19.06%, respectively. Comparing the susceptibility of geo-environmental problems under two conditions, it can be predicted that there is a greatly negative impact of anthropogenic activities in the southern surrounding region of Jinshazhou tunnel; while in the north of the study area, such as Poly West Coast, anthropogenic activities have a positive impact on geo-environment. The present distribution of geo-environmental problems has shown that the new evaluation technique system can be successfully applied to predict the urban geo-environmental impact of anthropogenic activities.

Geoenvironmental Impact Studies for Hydro-Energy Projects: Naryn River in Kyrgyzstan

Geoenvironmental Impact Studies for Hydro-Energy Projects: Naryn River in Kyrgyzstan

Geoenvironmental Impact of Effluents Generated from Al Subiya Power Plant on the Northern Kuwait Bay, State of Kuwait

The present study proposed to assess the geo-environmental impacts of Al Subiya desalination plant discharges in the Arabian Gulf, Kuwait. Most of the power and freshwater needs in the Middle East are met by the desalination of seawater. With approximately 11 million m³ of freshwater being produced each day, the salinity of the seawater along the Gulf coast is increasing. Due to brine discharge into outlet, salinity combined with higher sea surface temperatures was increased is a big environmental challenge. Therefore, in the current study the evaluation of Salinity and conductivity was higher in outlet samples than the inlet. Understanding chemical quality of sediment is important since many pollutants bind strongly to sediment particles and are persistent in the aquatic environment. The chemical and physical make-up of sediment is largely a reflection of upstream and local geology, land use, surface run off and many other complex phenomena. Many persistent compounds have high molecular weight and therefore settle out quickly and are incorporated with other settled organic materials. Since the sediment-water layer is the most reactive layer of the sea bed, changes in the sediment distribution and its physio-chemical characteristics will certainly occur in relation to time and space. In view of this, a distribution map of the sediment is important to understand the changes in composition and nature of contamination in the aquatic environment. This study set out to survey Al Subiya desalination plant inlet and outlet of marine area in Kuwait's Arabian Gulf water and to generate an updated map of the sediments of Kuwait's marine environment, in terms of pollutant factors and the corresponding map of water quality parameters during the survey of one year. The specific objectives were: 1) total organic carbon (TOC), and total petroleum hydrocarbons(TPH) in the sediment collected from selected station, 2) analyze the water quality parameters (pH, Dissolved Oxygen, temperature, salinity, turbidity, conductivity potential) in Al Subiya desalination plant inlet and outlet region, and 3) examine the level of contamination in sediments in terms of size, composition and concentration of different metals and correlate this data with the available physical water quality parameters.

Geo-environmental impact assessment and management information system for the mining area, Northeast China

The reliability and validity of mining geo-environmental impact assessment strongly depend on the availability of large volumes of high-quality investigation data and an effective evaluation methodology. Combining all the data in a coherent and logical structure supported by a computing environment helps ensure validity and availability. The study’s main objectives were twofold: environmental impact assessment and the development of a managing software tool. The study identifies geo-environmental impacting factors with a relational map, evaluates geo-environmental impact degrees with a comprehensive environmental impact assessment index calculated by the Takagi–Sugeno fuzzy neural network (TSFNN) model, and classifies assessment results into three categories: slight, moderate, and heavy. Furthermore, a routine management system was developed for mining geo-environmental information managers and officials based on a client/server model and component-based Geographic Information System (GIS) secondary development technology. The system has five main capabilities: mine enterprise and geo-environment information management, GIS map display and analysis, data querying and statistical analysis, geo-environmental impact assessment and classification, and document query and management. To verify the software’s performance, Changchun–Jilin–Tumen Economic Area in Jilin Province, Northeast China was selected for application. As validation, 96.23 % of TSFNN model evaluation results are the same as those of the Improved Analytic Hierarchy Process (IAHP) model. The results indicate that 64.15 % of the study area mine sites are moderately damaged and 7.5 % heavily damaged. The software provides an effective tool for geo-environmental information managers and can be applied by local governments for geo-environmental impact assessment and to design sustainable development guidelines for the mining area.

Mapping salt diapirs and salt diapir-affected areas using MLP neural network model and ASTER data

This study employs visible-near infrared and short wave infrared datasets of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) to map salt diapirs and salt diapir-affected areas using Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) in the Zagros Folded Belt, Iran, and introduces the role of earth observation technology and a type of digital earth processing in lithological mapping and geo-environmental impact assessment. MLP neural network model with several learning rates between 0.01 and 0.1 was carried out on ASTER L1B data, and the results were compared using confusion matrices. The most appropriate classification image for L1B input to MLP was produced by learning rate of 0.01 with Kappa coefficient of 0.90 and overall accuracy of 92.54%. The MLP result of input data set mapped lithological units of salt diapirs and demonstrated affected areas at the southern and western parts of the Konarsiah and Jahani diapirs, respectively. Field observations and X-ray diffraction analyses of field samples confirmed the dominant mineral phases identified remotely. It is concluded that MLP is an efficient approach for mapping salt diapirs and salt-affected areas.

A new model of geo-environmental impact assessment of mining: a multiple-criteria assessment method integrating Fuzzy-AHP with fuzzy synthetic ranking

A new evaluation model for geo-environmental impact assessment of mining (GEIAM) is proposed. The evaluation framework in this model considers three groups of criteria, namely, geo-hazards risks, environmental risks, and resource damages. Fuzzy-analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used to establish a multiple-criteria evaluation system and simultaneously command weighting to avoid vagueness and ambiguity in expert judgment. Membership function was employed to deal with the vagueness boundary problem of indices scoring and to help complete the ultimate fuzzy synthetic ranking. The model expresses the evaluation results with an integrated objective ranking and three criteria ranking. It was tentatively applied to assess an opencast limestone mine. The results indicated that the indices sequences were consistent with the mine background and the expert professional experience and better revealed the impact of geo-hazards risks. Specific assessment factors such as geo-hazards potential, engineering geological condition, and hydrogeological condition were prioritized for further improvement. Compared with existing GEIAM evaluation methods, the proposed assessment model focuses more on expert experience and judgment, breaks through the limitation of local estimation to variable attributes and, most importantly, satisfies the multi-purpose requirements to incorporate real considerations together for mining safety, geo-environmental protection, and natural resource conservation.