Sustainable Water Management in Mining and Post-Mining Landscapes

Mining has a great potential to cause long-lasting environmental impacts, particularly on regional water resources. In many cases, environmental concerns and government regulations have contributed to reduce effects of mining on water and environment. However, compliance with and enforcement of government regulations differ worldwide. Moreover, the risk of mining accidents is always present. For instance, in 2015 the dam collapse of a setting basin belonging to an iron ore mine caused heavy pollution through the displaced mud (sediment from iron ore extraction) to the Rio Doce river in the Brazilian federal state of Minas Gerais. Until today, biotopes and human settlements affected by this catastrophe suffer under the caused pollution and its repercussions. In 2009 in Nachterstedt/Saxony-Anhalt, three people died because parts of an inhabited settlement slipped into a flooded open-cast mining area. The reason for this accident was unexpected high pressure in ground water levels.

Therefore, it requires a sustainable water management in mining and post-mining landscapes to avoid water pollution and to cope with negative effects of mining activities. The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Brazilian Academy of Sciences (ABC), the Centre for Water and Environmental Research at the University of Duisburg-Essen (ZWU), Germany, and the National Institute of Science and Technology on Mineral Resources, Water, and Biodiversity (INCT-Acqua), Brazil, bring together young researchers (mainly post-docs) to analyze this specific water management topic, in an international and interdisciplinary context. It is the third workshop of the joint German-Brazilian series “Water and Regional Development”. The organizers kindly thank the Minas Gerais State Agency for Research and Development (FAPEMIG) for its generous financial support.