scholarly journals Causal Approach to Determining the Environmental Risks of Seabed Mining

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Kaikkonen ◽  
Inari Helle ◽  
Kirsi Kostamo ◽  
Sakari Kuikka ◽  
Anna Törnroos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Causal Approach ◽  
Seabed Mining

scholarly journals Causal approach to environmental risks of seabed mining

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Kaikkonen ◽  
Inari Helle ◽  
Kirsi Kostamo ◽  
Sakari Kuikka ◽  
Anna Törnroos ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Resource Use ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Benthic Fauna ◽  
Risk Identification ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Risk Assessments ◽  
Mining Activities ◽  
Iterative Model ◽  
Seabed Mining

ABSTRACTSeabed mining is approaching the commercial mining phase across the world’s oceans. This rapid industrialization of seabed resource use is introducing new pressures to marine environments. The environmental impacts of such pressures should be carefully evaluated prior to permitting new activities, yet observational data is mostly missing. Here, we examine the environmental risks of seabed mining using a causal, probabilistic network approach. Drawing on a series of interviews with a multidisciplinary group of experts, we outline the cause-effect pathways related to seabed mining activities to inform quantitative risk assessments. The approach consists of (1) iterative model building with experts to identify the causal connections between seabed mining activities and the affected ecosystem components, and (2) quantitative probabilistic modelling to provide estimates of mortality of benthic fauna in the Baltic Sea. The model is used to evaluate alternative mining scenarios, offering a quantitative means to highlight the uncertainties around the impacts of mining. We further outline requirements for operationalizing quantitative risk assessments, highlighting the importance of a cross-disciplinary approach to risk identification. The model can be used to support permitting processes by providing a more comprehensive description of the potential environmental impacts of seabed resource use, allowing iterative updating of the model as new information becomes available.

scholarly journals Deep Seabed Mining: A Note on Some Potentials and Risks to the Sustainable Mineral Extraction from the Oceans

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 521
Author(s):  
Walter Leal Filho ◽  
Ismaila Rimi Abubakar ◽  
Cintia Nunes ◽  
Johannes Joost Platje ◽  
Pinar Gökcin Ozuyar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Resources ◽  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Legal Aspects ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Rare Metals ◽  
Environmental Damages ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Deep Seabed Mining ◽  
Seabed Mining

The rapidly increasing global populations and socio-economic development in the Global South have resulted in rising demand for natural resources. There are many plans for harvesting natural resources from the ocean floor, especially rare metals and minerals. However, if proper care is not taken, there is substantial potential for long-lasting and even irreversible physical and environmental impacts on the deep-sea ecosystems, including on biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. This paper reviews the literature on some potentials and risks to deep seabed mining (DSM), outlining its legal aspects and environmental impacts. It presents two case studies that describe the environmental risks related to this exploitative process. They include significant disturbance of the seabed, light and noise pollution, the creation of plumes, and negative impacts on the surface, benthic, and meso- and bathypelagic zones. The study suggests some of the issues interested companies should consider in preventing the potential physical and environmental damages DSM may cause. Sustainable mining and the use of minerals are vital in meeting various industrial demands.

Conceptions of Risk in an Institutional Context

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aline Jaeckel ◽  
Rosemary Rayfuse
Keyword(s):  
Marine Environment ◽  
Scientific Knowledge ◽  
Institutional Context ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Adverse Impacts ◽  
The Face ◽  
International Seabed Authority ◽  
Deep Seabed Mining ◽  
Seabed Mining

Advances in scientific knowledge have led to competing imageries of the environmental risks and uncertainties associated with deep seabed mining. As the central institution charged with managing deep seabed mining and protecting the marine environment from its adverse impacts, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) provides an institutional platform for the conceptualisation and regulation of those risks and uncertainties. This chapter examines the manner in which environmental risks and uncertainties are conceptualised within the ISA and the processes through which it regulates in the face of uncertainty. In doing so it reveals the extent and the manner in which the existence of an institutional platform affects how the imagined future of perceived economic riches is being balanced against the need to protect an environment about which little is known.

Data analysis of social hygiene monitoring in russian regions determining environmental and hygienic safety for population

2020 ◽  
pp. 60-66
Author(s):  
O. Klepikov ◽  
S. Eprintsev ◽  
S. Shekoyan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Safety ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Priority Pollutants ◽  
Russian Regions ◽  
Social Hygiene ◽  
Atmospheric Air ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Federal Center

Data of the Federal Information Fund for Social Hygiene Monitoring conducted on the basis of the Federal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor have been analyzed to assess environmental risks, as well as to develop environmental safety system as a factor for sustainable development of the territory in the regions of the Russian Federation. Atmospheric air pollution in Russian regions was evaluated by content of priority pollutants. Ranking of Russian regions according to the quality of drinking water supply was carried out. The possibility of using Federal Information Fund for Social Hygiene Monitoring as an integral part of the model for optimizing the social and environmental conditions of populated areas is estimated.

Wastewater treatment and risk assessment in ocean outfall evaluations

1998 ◽  
Vol 38 (10) ◽  
pp. 309-316
Author(s):  
William F. Garber
Keyword(s):  
Wastewater Treatment ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Environmental Risks ◽  
Advanced Treatment ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Ocean Outfall ◽  
Treatment And Disposal ◽  
The City

Past evaluations of the success of wastewater treatment and submarine outfall placement and operation have considered only a limited number of parameters affecting the marine and onshore environments. Important questions regarding the best allocation of available funds have not been adequately addressed. The relative contamination of the sea from airborne and landwash contaminants has not been considered. Neither has the increased air pollution deriving from the energy required for advanced treatment. Similarly, regular epidemiological studies to evaluate actual changes in morbidity arising from drastic changes in treatment and disposal have not been made prior to very large committments of funds. Most importantly, little attention has been given to the relative ranking of all environmental risks within a catchment area. The net result is that, when all factors are considered, the very large expenditures and increased energy use for sanitary wastewater treatment and outfall disposal will have a net negative effect on the physical and societal environment. The City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Metropolitan area can be used to illustrate this probability.

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