Coal mining areas: environmental issues and solutions (on the example of Kuzbass)

Rozdział z: Functioning of the Local Production Systems in Central and Eastern European Countries and Siberia. Case Studies and Comparative Studies, ed. Mariusz E. Sokołowicz.Having survived restructuring period during which the volume of production halved, since 1999 the coal industry has seen a significant growth of its production. However, the positive trends are accompanied by negative impacts for the environment. Further growth of coal has its limits both from economic and ecological points of view. This paper focuses on the environmental side of the issue, particularly on problems of emissions and wastes producing by coal mining and withdrawal of lands from land use. For Kuzbass as the first in Russia coal mining area, the impact of the coal industry on the environment is excessive, and consequently those problems are particularly acute. To solve the complex of environmental issues, it is necessary to raise environmental performance to a new qualitative level. That will require more financial, technological legislative and managerial decisions.Monograph financed under a contract of execution of the international scientific project within 7th Framework Programme of the European Union, co-financed by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (title: “Functioning of the Local Production Systems in the Conditions of Economic Crisis (Comparative Analysis and Benchmarking for the EU and Beyond”)). Monografia sfinansowana w oparciu o umowę o wykonanie projektu między narodowego w ramach 7. Programu Ramowego UE, współfinansowanego ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego (tytuł projektu: „Funkcjonowanie lokalnych systemów produkcyjnych w warunkach kryzysu gospodarczego (analiza porównawcza i benchmarking w wybranych krajach UE oraz krajach trzecich”))

Russian Regions on the Route From Industrial to Network (Russian Realities and Experience of the EU Regions)

This work reflects the results from the cycle of research done in 2001-2004 for 20 Russian regions. At the end of it it was possible to generalize the regularities of the initial stage of transition which were characteristic for the Russian regions on their move from industrial to network model of economic development; compare Russian experience with EU core regions experience (the latter has started this way 20-25 years earlier, in mid-seventies). Typical features of this period are the increasing economic role of support sector and knowledge economy in the regional development, the increasing role of the mobile assets and footloose firms, gradual transformation of the industrial complexes into economic clusters, changes in typology of infrastructural networks (from vertical hierarchy to horizontal grid), etc. Regional authorities in every region abandon previous style of administrative commands and shift to economic coordination with the actors of the regional economy. There are expectations in the Russian regions that this transition will help to overcome economic and environmental limitations of the industrial paradygm which are evident in late Soviet period. The speed, intensity, and vulnerability of these transition are different among northern, central, and southern regions of Russia. Old economic ranks of the Russian regions of the industrial period has changed essentially. Cities-service centers have increased their importance; on the other side, role of big and small industrial cities and settlements have universally decreased. The most painful transformation is characteristic for the big industrial regions like Kuzbass (analogue of the German Ruhr). On the other side oil and gas regions of Russia are passing this transformation in easier way. But each Russian region has its own peculiarities in economy and social sphere which determine the trajectory and speed of transition.

Foreword

Słowo wstępne do: Functioning of the Local Production Systems in Central and Eastern European Countries and Siberia. Case Studies and Comparative Studies, ed. Mariusz E. Sokołowicz.Monograph financed under a contract of execution of the international scientific project within 7th Framework Programme of the European Union, co-financed by Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (title: “Functioning of the Local Production Systems in the Conditions of Economic Crisis (Comparative Analysis and Benchmarking for the EU and Beyond”)). Monografia sfinansowana w oparciu o umowę o wykonanie projektu między narodowego w ramach 7. Programu Ramowego UE, współfinansowanego ze środków Ministerstwa Nauki i Szkolnictwa Wyższego (tytuł projektu: „Funkcjonowanie lokalnych systemów produkcyjnych w warunkach kryzysu gospodarczego (analiza porównawcza i benchmarking w wybranych krajach UE oraz krajach trzecich”))

The Twentieth-Century Urals Economy in Historical Perspective

The article discusses major works on economic history published by Urals scholars over the past few decades and outlines the main stages of their research development. The analysis of these works leads to the theoretical conclusion that there has been a recent upsurge in the scholarly interest in economic history. This trend is related to the multimethodological approach gaining popularity among these scholars and the two disciplines, economics and history, drawing closer together. There is a popular belief that history can prove useful to any economist as a storage of economic facts tested by life itself and as a collection of various economic experiments. History, however, is also very important as a source of economic ideas. Thus, there is a process of genuine ‘cross-disciplinary communication’, which manifests itself in economists and historians’ exchanging theories developed within the framework of their disciplines. In its modern stage, the economic history of the Urals focuses on the problems which were not previously covered by historical studies for a number of objective reasons: some sources were classified and unavailable due to security control; and some topics were considered inappropriate to raise in studies of national history. Historians have now turned to such questions as the creation and development of industry-specific territorial production complexes, which used to be predominantly studied by economists. Nowadays, economic history discovers new topics for research, expands its database of sources, applies diverse methodology, and uses conceptual approaches and methods developed both by Russian and foreign economists

Economic and Technological Role of Kuzbass Industry in the Implementation of National Energy Strategy of Russian Federation

This article describes the problems and prospects of development of coal mining in Kuzbass - the center of coal production in Siberia and Russia, in the framework of the major initiatives of the National Energy Strategy for the period until 2035. The structural character of the regional coal industry problems, caused by decline in investment activity, high level of fixed assets depreciation, slow development of deep coal processing and technological reduction of coal mining is shown

The Experience of Implementation of Innovative Technology of Quarry Waste Water Purifying in Kuzbass Open Pit

Among all industries in Kuzbass (Western Siberia, Russia) the coal industry provides the most environmental threat. However, the construction of new and maintenance of existing open pit mines do not often correspond to the tasks of improving the environmental safety of surface mining. So the article describes the use of innovative quarry waste water purifying technology implemented in Kuzbass open pit mine "Shestaki". This technology is based on using artificial filter arrays made of overburden rock

Synanthropic flora of Kuzbass

The article presents the materials of studies of the adventive flora of the Kemerovo region. For the territory of the Kemerovo region, we identified 244 alien species belonging to 162 genera and 50 families. As a result of the increasing process of invasion of new species into the territory of the region, the need for constant monitoring of alien species for the degree of their naturalization, especially in natural cenoses, is urgent. The problem of synanthropic plant species is becoming increasingly important not only for economically developed territories, but also for the relatively preserved mountain regions of Kuzbass. As a result of the studies, it was found that the synanthropic fraction of the Kuzbass flora, consisting of adventive and apophyte species, accounts for about 18% of the total composition of the flora of vascular plants in the Kemerovo region (60 apophyte species, 244 – advent ones). The revealed heterogeneity in the chorological, ecological and biological terms of the species of the adventive fraction makes it possible to find suitable conditions in various types of ecotopes on the territory of the Kemerovo region. This type of work can serve as a basis for developing a strategy for the preservation of natural phytosystems of Kuzbas

A Method of Effective Quarry Water Purifying Using Artificial Filtering Arrays

The development of open pit mining in the large coal basins of Russia and other countries increases their negative impact on the environment. Along with the damage of land and air pollution by dust and combustion gases of blasting, coal pits have a significant negative impact on water resources. Polluted quarry water worsens the ecological situation on a much larger area than covered by air pollution and land damage. This significantly worsens the conditions of people living in cities and towns located near the coal pits, and complicates the subsequent restoration of the environment, irreversibly destroying the nature. Therefore, the research of quarry wastewater purifying is becoming an important mater for scholars of technical colleges and universities in the regions with developing open-pit mining. This paper describes the method of determining the basic parameters of the artificial filtering arrays formed on coal pits of Kuzbass (Western Siberia, Russia), and gives recommendations on its application

From Mining Innovations to Sustainable Development: Keynote Speakers of the First to the Second International Innovative Mining Symposium

24-26 April, 2017 the Scientific Practical Conference “International Innovative Mining Symposium (in memory of Prof. Vladimir Pronoza)” was successfully organized at T.F. Gorbachev Kuzbass State Technical University - KuzSTU (Kemerovo Russia). More than 20 participants submitted their papers in presence, and more than 40 authors sent their papers for virtual participation. The main participants of the conference - Keynote Speakers - paid special attention to the development of international cooperation of technical universities as a form of accelerating the transfer of innovations in mineral resources mining and processing