Preparing a mine for both drought and flood - a vulnerability and adaptive capacity study

[摘要] This report describes a method developed to assess a mine’s vulnerability to extreme climate conditions and its adaptation options and capacity to adapt in order to reduce vulnerability. This method has been named CRATER (Climate Related Adaptation from Terrain Evaluation Results). The case-study described here is situated at a mine site in the Bowen Basin, Queensland.The project was specifically designed to develop the decision making method, rather than to inform a single mine (the case-study) on how to adapt to reduce climate risk. Therefore, this report mainly focuses on the method, with some descriptive results and discussion. Nevertheless, the supporting mine has provided constructive feedback throughout the method development and on results and has stated that the method has been useful and files will be used to inform both current and future activities and planning in addition to validating the cause of recent events.Using CRATER, we have identified potential highest vulnerability areas (‘hot-spots’) for flood around the mine site, where early adaptation may be best focussed to reduce downtime and reduce vulnerability. The 3-step approach uses a geographic information system (GIS) to perform:•multi-criteria evaluations by ranking natural conditions such as elevation, slope, drainage and soils, at the mine; •fault tree analysis to identify the reasons a failure occurs and the counter measures or adaptation option that are available; and •5-capitals analysis to assess the mines capacity to adapt using each adaptation option. The methodology is transferrable to any mine with sufficient data, providing a practical decision making tool for other coal mines in Australia to perform a similar self-assessment. The results identify ‘no-regrets’ actions that, if taken, could not only reduce downtime related to an event, but may also enhance production and safety between such events, such as by providing more haulage routes, reduce risk to people and the environment through real time monitoring and improving emergency access.Ranking systems have been widely used in science, research, and as decision making tools and has been used in this method, as it suited the assessment of combinations of both remotely-sensed and ground-borne data. Using a digital elevation model (DEM), drainage analysis and soil character, each element is ranked according to vulnerability, calibrated against mine staff site-knowledge and evaluated in relation to infrastructure. This identified areas or processes most likely to fail under extreme rainfall and flooding conditions. The adaptive capacity of the mine site and mining company has been identified by assessing their resource availability, including technology, finances and staff capability. The case-study at a mine site in the Bowen Basin has provided mine data and expertise for this project. The method was tested for flood as this kind of event appears to have the most immediate (short notice) impact but could be applicable to any kind of extreme event including long-term or slow to develop drought conditions. The data was used primarily for the stage 1 of the three-part process to provide the hot-spot maps. The following two stages were more ‘generic’ to avoid giving a mine-specific view of the method and to protect the mine’s confidential knowledge and information.The method presented in this report has focussed specifically on flood events. However, to incorporate or assess specifically for drought events, the same method can be used by augmenting the GIS data with a map of potential dust sources and locations that dust clouds form, for example, in addition to alternative water storage locations that can be accessed in an emergency, including in the event of a fire. The results show that at the case-study mine site, there are a number of areas that are vulnerable to flood events, and three in particular were selected by the mine for further investigation. Those vulnerabilitie

[发布日期] 2013-04-01 [发布机构] ACARP

[学科分类] 地球科学(综合)