New observatory seeks to manage and make available information on mining projects

Developing a prototype of an environmental management information system focused on mining projects in the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions is the objective of the Environmental Observatory for Mining Projects, a project led by academics Kay Bergamini from IEUT and Katherine Mollenhauer from the School of Design.

PUC Communications.- How many contaminants does the water contain? What greenhouse gases are emitted? What is the size and location of the tailings? What is the environmental regulation and how is it enforced?

These and other questions regarding mining activity in Chile are what the paper tries to answer. Environmental Observatory of Mining Projects. “Each service handles its own data, which makes integration difficult and makes it difficult to perform some analysis. There is more and more data, and the volume of information becomes more unmanageable and incomprehensible. People have a lot of mistrust of data, that’s something we need to help rehabilitate“, it states Kay Bergamini, academic at the Institute of Urban and Territorial Studies (IEUT).

That was precisely one of the motivations for creating this initiative. Specifically, it is a FONDEF project, which aims to develop a prototype environmental management information system focused on mining projects in the Valparaíso and Metropolitan regions. The idea is to capture, integrate information and reduce access gaps to it, through the generation of indicators, in an appropriate and understandable language for each type of user.

The project is led by the Professor Kay Bergamini as director and the academic from the Katherine Mollenhauer School of Design as deputy director, together with a team of researchers made up of twelve members from different areas, including geography, environmental engineering, social sciences, design, and computing. In addition, it has the collaboration of the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), House of Peace Foundation, Technological Foundation National Mining Society (SONAMI), Environmental Law Institute (ELI), Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Mining.

information platform

The platform https://observatorioambientaluc.cl/ It is a system of access to public information on environmental management.

It has an environmental information section, categorized according to indicator: Emission of pollutants to water, emissions of pollutants to air, greenhouse gas emissions, water use, environmental compliance, hazardous waste, size and location of tailings, project conflict. , area intervened by mining activity, and environmental management activities.

In the same section of environmental information, you can find the data categorized by commune, among which are: Puchuncaví, Los Andes, Alhué and San José de Maipo.

Launch

The Observatory was presented through the seminar “Environmental Management in Mining: Transparency, access to information and its international impact”held on June 29 at the UC Extension Center.

The activity had as international guest David Jones of the Environmental Law Institute, who gave the talk “Transparency, access to information and its international impact.” They also participated Gabriela Encinarepresenting the Ministry of Mining; Maria Eliana Arntz, director of the Casa de la Paz Foundation; and Fernando Floresdeputy manager of SONAMI’s Technological Foundation for Mining.

The exhibitors valued the creation of the platform, and the inclusion in the project of the mining world, as well as the State and different civil society organizations.

projections

Regarding the future challenges of the Observatory, Kay Bergamini affirms that: “Once the platform was finished we felt that it had matured, but also, new questions and new opportunities arise.” And she adds that: “in the global mining context, In search of a sustainable energy transition, the reduction of the effects of carbon emissions, Chilean minerals such as copper or lithium are extremely necessary, but we must do it in a sustainable way and having information allows the entire system, the entire the world, to have the peace of mind that it is doing well”.

Currently the project is being applied to the Applied Research Fund, with the aim of having the resources to deepen the idata integration, generation of new indicators, and incorporation of new feedback and participation functionalities in the web platform.

Finally, Kay Bergamini concludes by stating that as a team “we are convinced that all this development will allow us to go improving the perception of mining activity, but also supporting the improvement of environmental management towards a more sustainable mining. We believe that this project is a contribution, both for society and for the advancement of research”