Building environmental capacity – The modern approach to mining
By Peter Sims and Phil Stollery
07 Mar 2011
Annoyance issues surrounding the mining industry can now benefit from years of smart environmental noise monitoring at airports, which brings a whole new way of looking at the problem.
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Noise Management | News
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Environmental capacity – a concept for our time
In our environmentally conscious age, industries like mining are facing tighter restrictions than ever before. As settlements near mines grow along with their inhabitants’ expectations, environmental noise has to meet demanding limits. Often these are set to as little as 5 dB above background levels, leaving little room for new development. An example – mining in Australia
In Australia, mining is a large business with a significant environmental impact, as a total of 328 mines are currently in operation. Naturally for a country the size of Australia, plenty of those have a very small adjacent population and little or no noise level problems. However, larger mines need more personnel that live nearby, and large communities have varying tolerance of mine noise. It’s not only about the level of noise but the way people perceive it. For many, noise is not seen as an issue, but for some it can be a huge source of annoyance. Clearly, the complexities of managing annoyance require smart solutions.
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Brüel & Kjær’s Environment Management Solutions business unit has spent the last 20 years working with airports on smart environmental noise monitoring, and developing technological solutions that manage noise annoyance. It’s through these extensive relationships that Brüel & Kjær has come to embrace the concept of building ‘environmental capacity’ as the best way of encompassing and explaining a multi-faceted approach to durable noise management.
Environmental capacity
| “As airports have been doing for years, optimising output in this way is essential to stay competitive” |
According to the Joint Group of Experts on Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection, environmental capacity is defined as “a property of the environment and its ability to accommodate a particular activity or rate of an activity … without unacceptable impact." Broadly, what this means in terms of noise management is the willingness of the local community to accept given noise levels at different times, but in fact it is far more nuanced than that.
Environmental capacity is not externally enforced like a law or a limit, but it is the self-evident collection of variables that define the limits for change – the mandate that comes from the local community. So rather than looking at noise management responsibilities as merely staying under a limit and reacting to complaints, thinking in terms of environmental capacity encourages businesses to focus on what they can do within the tolerance limit of the community. Importantly this includes building spare environmental capacity that enables business growth by facilitating change.
So how do you grow environmental capacity?
From the perspective of a mining operator, the key thing is that environmental capacity is not fixed, and it can be improved and bolstered. Accordingly it’s all about improving perceptions through transparency and public engagement, so that communities are more willing to accept change. Within the aviation industry, a twin-armed approach has proven to be the most effective, with impact reduction on one side of the equation, and tolerance building on the other, as seen in the graphic.
Smart technology
Gone are the bad old days of reacting to noise complaints with just hand-held sound level meter spot checks and a rough grasp of methodology. Gone even are the early days of unattended noise monitoring that required expert interpretation to navigate through invalid events in the data history like dogs barking near the microphone. With internet links the mine operator can now monitor, record, replay and pinpoint noise from the comfort of their office – while leaving the hard work to the professional company to which they have subscribed.
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With more detailed analysis, equipment improvements and noise barriers can be readily assessed. Quicker feedback calculations on new operating practices allow operators to build detailed 3D maps of their noise output that reflect their current activities around the mine. The result is continually assured compliance with noise levels in real-time that allows the operator to adapt their practices and to work right up to the limit where practical. As airports have been doing for years, and as the wind energy industry is increasingly realising, optimising output in this way is essential to stay competitive – but you need to be highly sensitive to the surrounding communities.
Engagement
Critically, engagement is not just a euphemism for persuading stakeholders, but is a genuine attempt to involve them. There is a vast difference between a community hearing blast explosions out of the blue, or knowing beforehand that they’re set to take place at 15:00 and will be finished by 15:15. People’s tolerance of noise is thus far greater when they’re well informed than if they have no expectation of it. Just as public reactions to crimes centre on explaining away the fear of the unknown, it is detailed information of unusual events that mitigates resentment and hostile reactions.
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| Enlarge image | | Through a web forum, local stakeholders can get information on past, present and future noise events |
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Thanks to the empowering nature of the internet, local residents can get real-time information on noisy activities from noise monitoring terminals. Through a web forum – typically integrated into the mine operator’s website – stakeholders can instantly access the same information as the manager. Not only does this promote transparency, it also allows the operator to forestall complaints by posting a schedule of noisy activities, it proves regulation compliance, and it allows people to identify and replay individual noise events.
Engagement differs from merely informing in that it requires tactile involvement, and consequently is not just limited to web portals, but encompasses community groups and visitor centres. Initiatives like these promote a two-way dialogue that continually educate communities and provide vital feedback to the mining operator.
Sound business sense
Environmental capacity tends to degrade over time, so for mining operators, sticking their heads in the sand and continuing with the status quo is not an option – as they’ll find their limitations increasing. As businesses grow their infrastructures, environmental capacity can easily become the main limiting factor if it is not actively addressed. Ultimately, changing from external, legislation-driven practices to proactive engagement-driven initiatives is the smartest way forward. Increasing community tolerance whilst intelligently minimising noise impact maximises the ‘breathing space’ for operations, enabling vital growth and change.
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