Protecting wetlands from underground mining impacts

Protecting wetlands from underground mining impacts

5 years ago
Anonymous $Dftgs0JzgE

https://phys.org/news/2019-03-wetlands-underground-impacts.html

Dr. Katarina David says the team initiated the research because they were deeply concerned about a series of incidents in the Southern Highlands of NSW where longwall mining was seemingly causing big problems with the water table, creeks and wetlands. She says that although research teams were mobilised to monitor and try to save the wetlands after the problems started, what was missing was information about the baseline condition of a wetland before the mine went in.

"I became really interested in improving our ability to predict the hydrological response of a swamp to natural or human influences by gathering information about how the groundwater behaves before any changes occur," says David, a Lecturer in the School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering at UNSW.