Quantifying rehabilitation risks for surface‐strip coal mines using a soil compaction Bayesian network in South Africa and Australia: To demonstrate the R²AIN Framework

Abstract

Environmental information is acquired and assessed during the environmental impact assessment process for surface-strip coal mine approval. However, integrating these data and quantifying rehabilitation risk using a holistic multidisciplinary approach is seldom undertaken. We present a rehabilitation risk assessment integrated network (R 2 AIN TM ) framework that can be applied using Bayesian networks (BNs) to integrate and quantify such rehabilitation risks. Our framework has 7 steps, including key integration of rehabilitation risk sources and the quantification of undesired rehabilitation risk events to the final application of mitigation. We demonstrate the framework using a soil compaction BN case study in the Witbank Coalfield, South Africa and the Bowen Basin, Australia. Our approach allows for a probabilistic assessment of rehabilitation risk associated with multidisciplines to be integrated and quantified. Using this method, a site's rehabilitation risk profile can be determined before mining activities commence and the effects of manipulating management actions during later mine phases to reduce risk can be gauged, to aid decision making. Integr Environ Assess Manag 2019;15:190-208. C 2019 SETAC

Bayesian Networks in Environmental Risk Assessment: A Review

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Education in Ecological Engineering—a Need Whose Time Has Come

“…It has also received 5000 visitors from universities, primary schools and vocational schools. Soil compaction is regarded as one of the most significant challenges facing the rehabilitation of mined land [76]. So much so that prescriptions for alleviation are included in several international good practice mine rehabilitation guideline documents [77][78][79][80][81][82].…”

Assessment of post-mining terrain suitability for economic use

“…Apart from land surface deformations, ecological and health issues are of great significance (Weyer et al 2019;Ciszewski 2019;Palma et al 2019), as well as social problems (Kowalska-Jonek 2014; Marais et al 2018;Everingham et al 2018;Kivinen et al 2018).…”