Arcadia, The Museum Of Nature

<p>The loss of indigenous ancient forests has had a great impact to New Zealand habitats. Native birds, insects, fungi, plants and animals have been diminishing in diversity since human occupation. This is to a degree the result of intensive resource consumption and demand. Forestry, agriculture, mineral and gas resources were seen as more valuable than the ecosystems that existed before them. Our landscapes themselves became secondary. The particular infrastructure of open cast mining was chosen for this research. Mining represents a way to design active reclamation, while the mine site is still operating. Because of this, time becomes an integral component to the design process. The site is situated at Macraes flat, Otago. Ten kilometres of open cast mine, in operation since 1990. Open cast mining has produced great income. However, The cost of mining extends beyond an eyesore, it diminishes the quality of the land for any future use. Arcadia, the Museum of Nature is a vision of a place for preservation and for pride in ancestral property. A true “Arcadia” — a land of natural wonder. This is a museum of New Zealand’s key indigenous species. One designed through myth woven narratives, inspired by existing authors and generated through narrative experiments. To inspire, educate and showcase our unique ecologies, and endangered environments for future generations. Arcadia becomes a place to witness the succession of the natural world. A continuous time scale allows for a regenerative solution over years to centuries. Thereby showing the ability and resilience of nature in taking back from man’s intrusive tendencies. Rectifying the grotesque interruption of one of nature’s greatest tools, that of time. All the while harbouring our rare and unique wildlife. The museum of nature replaces the current system of remediation, and provides a more provocative solution to the end of modern day infrastructure.</p>

Arcadia, The Museum Of Nature

<p>The loss of indigenous ancient forests has had a great impact to New Zealand habitats. Native birds, insects, fungi, plants and animals have been diminishing in diversity since human occupation. This is to a degree the result of intensive resource consumption and demand. Forestry, agriculture, mineral and gas resources were seen as more valuable than the ecosystems that existed before them. Our landscapes themselves became secondary. The particular infrastructure of open cast mining was chosen for this research. Mining represents a way to design active reclamation, while the mine site is still operating. Because of this, time becomes an integral component to the design process. The site is situated at Macraes flat, Otago. Ten kilometres of open cast mine, in operation since 1990. Open cast mining has produced great income. However, The cost of mining extends beyond an eyesore, it diminishes the quality of the land for any future use. Arcadia, the Museum of Nature is a vision of a place for preservation and for pride in ancestral property. A true “Arcadia” — a land of natural wonder. This is a museum of New Zealand’s key indigenous species. One designed through myth woven narratives, inspired by existing authors and generated through narrative experiments. To inspire, educate and showcase our unique ecologies, and endangered environments for future generations. Arcadia becomes a place to witness the succession of the natural world. A continuous time scale allows for a regenerative solution over years to centuries. Thereby showing the ability and resilience of nature in taking back from man’s intrusive tendencies. Rectifying the grotesque interruption of one of nature’s greatest tools, that of time. All the while harbouring our rare and unique wildlife. The museum of nature replaces the current system of remediation, and provides a more provocative solution to the end of modern day infrastructure.</p>

Democracy in the face of disagreement: Environmentalist opposition to Escarpment Mine on the Denniston Plateau

<p>Despite New Zealand’s Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) being lauded as offering democratic decision-making processes, those in opposition to consent applications often feel their input has minimal influence on the decisions made. This research explores how democracy is actualised or constrained through environmentalist opposition to decisions made about coal-mining on conservation land, including both informal and formal participation. Escarpment Mine is a proposal for an open cast coal mine on the Denniston Plateau on the West Coast of New Zealand. The mine was granted resource consents in 2011 by the two local councils. Environmental activists engaged with these decisions through the formal council led submission process, a requirement under the RMA, and informally through activism, protest and campaigning. Their opposition was founded on concerns about the mine’s effects on conservation and climate change. Drawing on theories of deliberative democracy and radical democracy, I create a framework for democracy that includes agonism and antagonism, situated within the overarching democratic principles of equality, justice and the rule of the people. Through interviewing environmentalists opposed to Escarpment Mine and the council officials involved, my research discusses the way environmentalists were constrained from participating meaningfully in the formal process due to perceived bias and the privileging of neoliberal discourses. I suggest that this case reflects a lack of agonism in most areas, and a delegitimising of antagonistic activism despite such activism working towards equality and justice. Thus, the case does not fulfil the democratic ideals of working with disagreement.</p>

Democracy in the face of disagreement: Environmentalist opposition to Escarpment Mine on the Denniston Plateau

<p>Despite New Zealand’s Resource Management Act 1991 (RMA) being lauded as offering democratic decision-making processes, those in opposition to consent applications often feel their input has minimal influence on the decisions made. This research explores how democracy is actualised or constrained through environmentalist opposition to decisions made about coal-mining on conservation land, including both informal and formal participation. Escarpment Mine is a proposal for an open cast coal mine on the Denniston Plateau on the West Coast of New Zealand. The mine was granted resource consents in 2011 by the two local councils. Environmental activists engaged with these decisions through the formal council led submission process, a requirement under the RMA, and informally through activism, protest and campaigning. Their opposition was founded on concerns about the mine’s effects on conservation and climate change. Drawing on theories of deliberative democracy and radical democracy, I create a framework for democracy that includes agonism and antagonism, situated within the overarching democratic principles of equality, justice and the rule of the people. Through interviewing environmentalists opposed to Escarpment Mine and the council officials involved, my research discusses the way environmentalists were constrained from participating meaningfully in the formal process due to perceived bias and the privileging of neoliberal discourses. I suggest that this case reflects a lack of agonism in most areas, and a delegitimising of antagonistic activism despite such activism working towards equality and justice. Thus, the case does not fulfil the democratic ideals of working with disagreement.</p>

Investigating The Effects of Rainy Season On Open Cast Mining Operation: The Case of Wescoal Khanyisa Colliery

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of rainy season in open cast mining and possible factors that could contribute to production loses during these rainy periods. The major issue at Wescoal’s Khanyisa Colliery is the impact that rainfall has on the coal extraction process during the rainy season. The opencast mine operation loses a significant amount of time that is supposed to be used to run the mining value chain by trying to deal with the effects of the rainfall. This study made use of acquired data from Khanyisa Colliery between the period of December 2019 and January 2020 rainy months in South Africa. This data includes, the amount of daily and weekly rainfall, the water pumping rate, frequency of breakdowns and success rate of load and haul. The average weekly rainfall was found to be 69 mm over the 8 weeks of the summer season. However, the adopted method of managing the mine water was not efficient enough as a result of a low capacity pump and their pumping rate in comparison to the volume of water in the pit. This has affected some sections in the mine as productivity dropped due to reduction in loading and hauling activities from the pit to the stockpiles. In order to improve the productivity, the authors made some suggestions than can enhance production during rainy seasons.

A middle Eocene treefall pit and its filling: a microenvironmental study from the onset of a forest mire in the Geiseltal (Germany)

The treefall pit of a large tree at the base of the middle Eocene Mittelkohle has been studied in the former open-cast mine Neumark Nord of the Geiseltal Mining District. Above a light clastic soil, the sedimentation in the pit started with backfall and downwashed material grading upwards into pond deposits that filled the pit. This represents a high-resolution section equivalent in time to the initial peat-forming environment. Palynology revealed a striking difference between a fern-dominated herbaceous plant community below the pit and a pulse of washed-in fagaceous pollen (Tricolpopollenites liblarensis) at the base of the pit. This is overlain by an assemblage of woody taxa typical of a peat swamp forest associated with a number of tropical elements. Comparison with a nearby but undisturbed transition from underlying sediments to the seam confirms the ecotonal character of the parent plant of T. liblarensis, and suggests that Cupressaceae s.l., Nyssaceae and Myricaceae especially benefited from moisture and light in the clearing of the treefall pit. The transition from the underlying sediment to the lignite represents a sharp break in the sedimentary regime from clastic to purely organic material with a bounding surface colonised by large trees, most of them preserved as individual stumps, but including some fallen logs.