Climate change and surface mining: A review of environment-human interactions & their spatial dynamics

Abstract How climate change interacts upon human activities necessary for meeting the needs of a society is important to understand. Mining is such an activity, as it provides the fundamental raw materials required in everyday life. However, mining is potentially extremely vulnerable to climate change. This is because of the exacerbation of interactions already occurring to the local environment-human system, as well as the development of new interactions and their subsequent impacts. Within the literature, there has been no generic review or synthesis of the fundamental interactions between climate change and surface mining. This paper intends to undertake such a review and synthesis of the literature. The paper discusses the potential and actual interactions between climate change and surface mining in relation to five core themes: Heavy Metals; Hydrological Processes & Resources; Ecological Impacts; Air Pollution; and Mass Movement. This is based upon an extensive and focussed review of the current and available literature. The paper then concludes with a discussion of open themes and future research concerning climate change and surface mining in relation to three fundamental spatial dynamic questions.