Justification of the Feasibility of Normalizing the Level of Greening of Sanitary and Protective Zones of Operating Quarry Rock Dumps in the Context of Sustainable Development

Abstract

To reduce the impact of polluted air on human health it is important to expand the areas of green spaces and create healthier conditions for the local population to live and reproduce biodiversity. Dumps of overburden the surface of which has reached intensive self-overgrowth with grass and tree-shrub vegetation and the industry of the adjacent land should be considered as fabricated objects with a high potential of gas-absorbing capacity of pollutants from the surface layer of atmospheric air. A comparison of the amount of emissions of pollutants which are directly during the dumping of overburden dumps with the ability of vegetation to adsorb them during the growing season revealed the following: rather high indicators of the absorption capacity for sulfur oxide and the ability to self-clean the surface layer of the air as well as an additional balance of regenerated oxygen due to green vegetation. Calculations of emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from vehicles were made taking into account unloading operations from the dumping of mining mass into a dump and taking into account their formation during the combustion of fuel from internal combustion engines of special equipment according to specific indicators. The analysis of the cartographic material showed a sufficient level of greening of the sanitary and protective zone of the dumps in accordance with the territory planning recommendations. The possibility of self-cleaning of the surface air layer should be considered during the preparation of relevant environmental impact assessment reports of the planned economic activity and during the planning of dumping, the volumes of which are related to the gradual advancement of the work front in the quarry. This will make it possible to consider industrial lands with a high level of greening as one of the ways to increase the ESG rating of economic activity in terms of the impact of environmental risks on atmospheric air quality and its minimization due to a sufficient level of industrial lands greening.