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Climate change adaptation has received limited attention compared to mitigation across all spatial levels. This is besides the documented adverse impacts of climate change in different sectors of societies including mining in general and coal mining specifically. Against this background, the study set three objectives. The first objective was to identify current and possible future climate change impacts that may affect selected coal mines in South Africa. The second objective was to establish the nature and extent to which these mines were ready to address and implement adaptation measures. The last objective was to determine and document existing climate change adaptation practices in selected mines. Employing the mixed methods approach, the research engaged five coal mines located in Mpumalanga, Free State and Kwa Zulu-Natal, gathering both the qualitative and quantitative data. This data was analysed thematically. The research made three major findings. The first finding was that the climatic conditions in the research areas have been changing over the observed period. In general, rainfall has been declining and temperatures have been increasing, leading to increased cases of extreme fog, mist and heatwaves. The second finding was that there has been an increase in frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, most notably, floods and droughts. These changes in the climate and associated weather events have frequently affected mine operations particularly at the production sub-chain of the coal mining value chain. The third major finding was that despite this evidence of adverse impact of climate change on the production sub-chain of the South African coal mining value chain, adaption responses in all the studied mines showed reactive adaptation to extreme events instead of proactive adaptation planning and implementation. South Africa depends on coal-derived energy, electricity in particular and the coal mines are implicitly exposed and vulnerable to the adverse impacts of climate change. Reducing this exposure and vulnerability dictates the urgent need to implement anticipatory adaptation measures in all the sub-chains of the coal mining value chain. / Environmental Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil (Environmental management)

The thesis describes the application of anchors in mining and tunneling and gives an up-to-date overview about anchor types, design principles and the interaction mechanisms between anchors and rockmass. A constitutive model was developed, implemented and tested for the 2- and 3-dimensional numerical codes FLAC and FLAC3D to simulate non-linear anchor behaviour including unloading and reloading. The interaction between rockbolts and rockmass was studied in detail via numerical simulations for 5 Vietnamese coal mines. An extended version of the so-called c-Φ reduction method and a new introduced reinforcement factor were applied to quantify the effect of bolting. Mine specific and generalised relations were deduced to quantify the influence of anchor length and distance between anchors on the effect of bolting.

Sites left to spontaneous vegetation succession and those technically reclamed were studied and compared on dumps in the Most Region, NW Czech Republic. Data were sampled in summer 2008 and 2010. Species composition and species diversity were analyzed using phytosociological reléves arranged along 100m transects. Alfa- and beta-diversity were evaluated. There were significant differences between sites in alfadiversity. Beta-diversity was highest in the spontaneously re-vegetated sites. There were also differences in species composition among the studied sites. I consider using spontaneous succession as appropriate in restoration of land disturbed by brown coal mining. It is a good alternative to expensive technical reclamation.

The thesis describes the application of anchors in mining and tunneling and gives an up-to-date overview about anchor types, design principles and the interaction mechanisms between anchors and rockmass. A constitutive model was developed, implemented and tested for the 2- and 3-dimensional numerical codes FLAC and FLAC3D to simulate non-linear anchor behaviour including unloading and reloading. The interaction between rockbolts and rockmass was studied in detail via numerical simulations for 5 Vietnamese coal mines. An extended version of the so-called c-Φ reduction method and a new introduced reinforcement factor were applied to quantify the effect of bolting. Mine specific and generalised relations were deduced to quantify the influence of anchor length and distance between anchors on the effect of bolting.

Most of mining operations in Indonesia use open pit mine methods, with truck and shovel system and a large amount of manpower. The mining industry plays an important role contributed to the national economy and development in Indonesia, otherwise the mine accidents become as sensitive issue or problem. The main cause of mine accidents is still dominant of the low safety awarenesses and accountabilities, and also improperly cost spent on the occupational health and safety (OSH) programs. This thesis describes the concept behind the return on prevention and workers‟ perception descriptive analyses of the occupational health and safety in relation to improve safety performances. The proactive action plan related to accidents prevention is as an essential step of the risk management processes. Participation and intervention for all employees are important and urgent, especially for the frontline workers, which are crucial in achieving good safety performances with financial support properly. The main objective of this study evaluates of the workers‟ perception and cost spent on the occupational health and safety program at the companies in relation to accident prevention efforts. In general, the several objectives are described to evaluate of the mine accident rates, the validity and reliability tests of the questionnaires, workers relationships and suggestions, interviews, observations, and the OSH cost effectiveness. The methods of this study are assessed by the descriptive statistical analysis approaches of the return on prevention with the microeconomic model of the net present value, internal rate of return, and cost benefit analysis to justify the benefits return and the break even point and interventions directly according to the workers‟ perception through questionnaire, interview, and observation. The methodology is assessed by the gathering data obtained from the companies through the surveys of the questionnaire, interview, observation, and the money expenses in the occupational health and safety for the workers. The valuation methods are used by the degree of significance of 95%, margin of error 5%, with total number of respondents are 1,600 persons as sampling which representation of the four surface coal mine companies in Indonesia. The seven elements are a basic assessment approached of the training and education, personal protective equipment, preventive medical check up, employment injury insurance, improvement existing technology, signalization, and organization. The result shows the advantages using these analyses which described the importance of the money invested on OSH and effectiveness of interventions by worker‟s perception in order to prevent accidents at workplace. The effectiveness of interventions to the environment working conditions and workers mindsets directly. The OSH cost invested for workers, in general, will triggers the work performances to be better, and then the occupational health and safety in a strong position to achieve the goals of the company. Improvement safety awareness and accountability of workers shall reduce or prevent accidents at work, and the company should be invested money in the OSH program with the minimum amount is US $ 207.17 per employee or US $ 0.12 per ton of coal produced. The investment of the people and money properly shall give significant impacts in preventing accidents to achieve zero accident vision in order to protect people, property, process and profit of the company for short or long term benefits, and will also give a good images for sustainable in mining business.

The thesis is dealing with construction damages in the undermined Kladno-Švermov district. This area is situated in the Kladno Coal district, which is a part of the Kladno- Rakovník Basin. Kladno-Švermov is one of the places which have been affected by mining activity for more than last 150 years. Firstly the historical documentation, structure development and engineering geology investigations were reviewed. Secondly the area was investigated and the catalogue of 39 documentation points was made. The aim was to register visible construction damages on buildings, roads, or bricked fences, which could be caused by effects of undermining. The consequences of undermining in the Kladno-Švermov district are still apparent and the impacts of the hard coal mining are not finished. The main impact in the area is represented by subsidence basin. It has affected all the area and the damages are mainly caused by unequal descent. They are visible on some buildings, roads, or fences. Attachment number 3 is represented by commented catalogue of the main damages in the area and map of the undermined district with documentation points is enclosed as an attachment number 4.

This PhD thesis compares the water regime of reclaimed and unreclaimed spoil heaps after brown coal mining, with special regard to the development of hydrological properties of soils, which are determinant for the movement and retention of water in the soil. The basic influence on the supply of soil water has the technology of pouring the spoil heaps and aging, which co-regulates the development of vegetation. During the development of soil's spoil heaps increases field water capacity and water retention, but also increases the wilting point. These changes are related to the accumulation of organic matter in the soil and the degradation of claystones to particle size of physical clay. The development of the ability of the spoil heaps soils to bind water is greater in reclaimed areas, where the upper organomineral horizon develops more rapidly, but there is also a wilting point and water consumption. On unreclaimed area, the soil substrate develops more slowly. Overall, the differences in water regime between reclaimed and unreclaimed areas are small.

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