Determination of Environmental Factors for the Implementation of the Exploitability Index in Industrial Aggregate Mining Using Multi-Criteria Analysis

• Published in: ISPRS international journal of geo-information Vol. 10; no. 4; p. 196
• Main Authors: de Luis-Ruiz, Julio Manuel, Salas-Menocal, Benito Ramiro, Fernández-Maroto, Gema, Pérez-Álvarez, Rubén, Pereda-García, Raúl
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01-04-2021
• Subjects: Algorithms; Analysis; Analytic hierarchy process; Components; Decision making; environmental factor; Environmental factors; Environmental impact; Environmental management; exploitability index; Exploitation; Geographic information systems; Geographical information systems; Geology; GIS; industrial aggregates; Information systems; Methodology; Mineral reserves; Mineral resources; Minerals; Mining; Morphology; multi-criteria analysis; Multiple criterion; Outcrops; Planning; Remote sensing; Software
• ISSN: 2220-9964; 2220-9964
• DOI: 10.3390/ijgi10040196

The quality of human life is linked to the exploitation of mining resources. The Exploitability Index (EI) assesses the actual possibilities to enable a mine according to several factors. The environment is one of the most constraining ones, but its analysis is made in a shallow way. This research is focused on its determination, according to a new preliminary methodology that sets the main components of the environmental impact related to the development of an exploitation of industrial minerals and its weighting according to the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). It is applied to the case of the ophitic outcrops in Cantabria (Spain). Twelve components are proposed and weighted with the AHP and an algorithm that allows for assigning a normalized value for the environmental factor to each deposit. Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are applied, allowing us to map a large number of components of the environmental factors. This provides a much more accurate estimation of the environmental factor, with respect to reality, and improves the traditional methodology in a substantial way. It can be established as a methodology for mining spaces planning, but it is suitable for other contexts, and it raises developing the environmental analysis before selecting the outcrop to be exploited.