Coal mining wastes: assessment, monitoring and reclamation of environmental impacts through remote sensing and geostatistical analysis - CoalMine
- Universidade do Porto(líder)
- Universidade de Évora(parceiro)
Summary
Coal related fires may occur in un-mined outcrops, during coal mining, in abandoned mines, during storage and transportation, and in coal waste deposits. The self-burning of coal mobilizes large amounts of pollutants, particulate matter, organic compounds, and toxic trace elements that can be emitted, released or leached to soils, waters and air of the surrounding environment. The past mining activity in Douro Coalfield impacted the environment because, among other things, three coal waste piles started burning in 2005 after wildfires that caused the ignition. The comprehensive characterization of materials that constitutes the self-burning coal waste piles, which is essential for the identification of the potential impacts caused in the environment, was already developed. The main goal of this project is the characterization and quantification of the impacts on surrounding environment, ecosystems and health of population living nearby São Pedro da Cova waste pile, which is located near a population centre and social infrastructures. The investigation of the impacts on soils, water and air of the surrounding area of the S. Pedro da Cova waste pile will allow the identification of organic and inorganic elements that can be potentially hazardous for the ecosystems and human health. The geochemical composition of soils and water collected in the surrounding area of São Pedro da Cova waste pile will be determined and the combustion temperature and mass movements will be monitored through remote sensing techniques. The spatial distribution in the contaminated areas through the quantification of pollutants and analysis of pollution extent will be attained using spatial analysis and geostatistical algorithms improving the estimation of the exposure factors in the limited area and characterizing the environmental and health risks exploiting the derived geospatial data. The interpretation and the integration of the results will allow the identification and characterization of the environmental impacts caused by the self-burning coal waste deposit which will be essential for the definition of appropriated measures for mitigation or reclamation. The dissemination of the results is expected to contribute for scientific knowledge and to provide valuable information for decision makers about the mitigation or reclamation of environmental impacts
Goals, activities and expected/achieved results
Goals
The self-burning of coal wastes piles resulted from coal mining activities represent a source of pollutants that are emitted, released or leached to the surrounding environment. During the combustion process, the emission of harmful gases and particulate matter into the atmosphere, the mobilization and leaching of hazardous elements may affect the atmosphere, soils, surface and groundwater, and consequently may cause environmental pollution and effects on biodiversity and human health. Considering the above and the fact that the impacts on surrounding environment and human health caused by self-burning coal waste piles in Douro Coalfield were never investigated, the main objective of this project proposal is to identify and characterize the environmental impacts arising from the self-burning process in S. Pedro da Cova waste pile (under self-combustion process since 2005 until present days and located near a population centre and social infrastructures) in order to identify the proper mitigation or reclamation measures to solve the environmental and human-health issues. For that, the specific objectives are: i) to compile and systematize information about the constituents of coal waste material that may be release to the surrounding environment, principally as a consequence of the self-combustion process; ii) to identify and quantify hazardous elements in soils, and water from streams, springs and wells in the surrounding area of S. Pedro da Cova waste pile through geochemical analyses; iii) to monitor combustion temperature and mass movements in the coal waste pile through remote sensing using unmanned aerial vehicles. iv) to improve the GIS open source application in order to produce the required cartography to quantitatively describe the spatial distribution of the contaminated areas through the quantification of pollutants and analysis of pollution extent using spatial analysis and geostatistical algorithms improving the estimation of the exposure factors in the limited area and characterizing the environmental and health risks exploiting the derived geospatial data; v) to compare the obtained results for concentration of pollutants in soils and water in the surrounding area of S. Pedro da Cova waste pile with values from legislation and other investigated case studies from the literature; vi) to predict evolutive scenarios of the self-combustion and identify appropriated measures for mitigation or reclamation of environmental impacts (the treatment and reutilization of mining waste should be considered)
Activities
1. Systematization of information and sampling design
2. Soils sampling and analysis
3. Waters sampling and analysis
4. Remote sensing monitoring of combustion temperature and mass movements
5. Geostatistical analysis
6. Integration of the results
7 Dissemination
Results
The evaluation and monitoring of combustion temperature, mass movements within the coal waste pile and gaseous emissions will be attained through remote sensing using unmanned aerial vehicles. Drones will be used for collection of data with photographic cameras and other sensors that will provide information for environmental assessments. The results will provide information about mass movements associated with instabilities caused by the combustion process, as well as the temperature in the surface of the coal waste pile. The results from geochemical composition of soils and water samples, together with the data collected with UAV will be used as input data in the GIS open source application in order to create maps with the hazard chemical elements concentration, temperature variations and risk maps. Other type of geographic information such as Digital Elevation Models (DEM), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Land Change, Land Use Land Cover (LULC), forest fire risk, groundwater vulnerability to pollution and soil erosion will also be created and integrated in the application. Statistical analysis will also be performed in the same application providing useful outputs to consider in the decision support tool such as histograms, plots and variograms. The GIS open source application will allow the monitoring of several parameters such as elements of concentration, the dynamics of the temperature and combustion process at specific periods of time, gaseous emission, mass movements through the creation of maps representing the spatial and temporal variations
The resulting plots can be very useful to analyze and evaluate the behavior of the combustion process at specific points, helping to establish prevention measures. The improved application will incorporate a deeper geostatistical analysis through several functionalities created. The spatial analysis will be evaluated through the maps returned by the application. The project implementation will include bibliographic research about the theme in general and about the self-burning coal waste piles from Douro Coalfield in order to proceed with the systematization of the information about the components of the coal waste material (including also the leachates resulting from water percolation through those materials and by-products resulting from the combustion process), that may be release to soils, water and air of surrounding area. This systematization is very important to identify potential problematic elements (e.g., presence of toxic elements, elements with high concentrations). The knowledge about the chemical composition of the solid materials and leachates that constitutes the coal waste piles together with the analyses of soils and waters collected nearby but not influenced by the coal waste piles are essential for the identification of pollutants elements and their extent. For that, samples of the referred materials not influenced by the coal waste piles will also be collected and analysed, and data from previous research about the chemical composition of coal waste materials will be considered. The results obtained through the different methodologies will be therefore treated, analyzed and integrated, which will allow the characterization of soils, waters and air of the surrounding area of the S. Pedro da Cova waste pile and, consequently, and the identification of inorganic and organic elements that can be hazardous. The characterization of environmental impacts associated with the coal deposit will allow the identification of proper mitigation or reclamation measures for the resolution of environmental and human health issues. The results will also allow the analysis of the dynamics of the combustion process in the coal waste pile as well as predict evolution scenarios. The studies related with the phenomenon of self-burning coal waste piles can provide a valuable service to the local communities, supplying information about the concentration of toxic elements that are being release to environment, about the hazard of exposure to potentially harmful emissions, and about the appropriated mitigation or reclamation measures that should be develop to solve the environmental and human health issues.
| Attribute | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|
| id | integer | 3910 |
