School of Geography - Research Publications
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ItemNegotiating the mine Commitments, engagements, contradictions(Routledge, 2021)This Handbook provides an essential guide to the study of resources and their role in socio-environmental change.
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ItemAssessing impacts of mining: Recent contributions from GIS and remote sensing(ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2019-07)Mining produces several environmental, social, and economic impacts which can be analysed spatially using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS). This paper provides an overview of recent studies using these techniques to assess mining impacts on water, land, and society. It also highlights the geographic complexities of these impacts via mining case studies, and discusses spatial research methods, data sources, and limitations. Despite noted simplifications, risks, and uncertainties of mapping the impacts of mining, the cases included in our overview illustrate that there are clearly beneficial applications. At a local level, these include environmental and socioeconomic risk assessments, disaster mitigation, and adjudication on mine-related conflicts. At a regional level, spatial analyses can support cumulative and strategic impact assessments. At a global level, spatial analyses can reveal industry-wide land use trends, and provide key land use data for comparative analyses of mining impacts between commodities, locations, and mine configurations. The degree to which such benefits are realised will likely depend on the resources afforded to what is a growing field of study.
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ItemPolitical ecologies of the post-mining landscape: Activism, resistance, and legal struggles over Kalimantan's coal mines(ELSEVIER, 2020-07)This study explores contestation over the meanings, rules and practices of coal mine reclamation and mine closure in the context of East Kalimantan, Indonesia's major coal producing province. As mining intensified in the province, and coal was mined out, concessions were left with large mine voids un-refilled and abandoned without closure – many within close vicinity to human settlements. Following an extended campaign led by a diverse group of social movement actors, utilising various advocacy and litigation strategies, the East Kalimantan legislature adopted a provincial regulation in 2013, reinforcing higher-level regulations that mandate coal mining companies to conduct reclamation and post-mining clean up. The regulation was the first time that activists had directly influenced policy regulating mining at the sub-national level in Indonesia. Yet the policy outcome alone has not been sufficient to shape change: an estimated 1735 coal mine voids remain un-refilled in East Kalimantan, and the number of human fatalities from deaths in mine voids continues to grow. Remediation of mine sites is rarely performed to return land to its pre-mined conditions. By bringing together relevant scholarship in political ecology, the politics of development and legal geography, we analyse the relationships between pact-making, political settlements, contestation and policy reform related to the governance of post-mine landscapes.