PhD Studentship: Digital twinning for post-mining environmental transitions

Mining is a cornerstone industry that utilises natural capital. Downsizing or cessation of mining occurs when ore deposits become subeconomic or exhausted. The loss of a cornerstone industry, combined with limited economic diversification and negative environmental legacies, are key challenges for resilience in post-mining communities. The PhD project mission is to build sustainability on the natural capital and infrastructure foundations left behind by end-of-life extractive industries. 

The research has strategic importance because escalating resource consumption will drive a greater number of mine sites into transition, for reopening of legacy sites, care and maintenance of marginally economic mines, or closure of mines in exhausted ore bodies. Existing strategies for decision-making about reuse of mined landscapes are not adequate. This project builds the UK-based knowledge economy for responsible mining life cycles. The ultimate goal of the project is a decision-making strategy to support mine transition, from the outset of the industrial planning stage and through mine development. Identification of opportunities for economic diversification (and thereby community resilience) must be sensitive to the physical landscape and environmental protections, to minimize industrial pressure on ecosystems. 

The approaches must be robust enough to apply to multiple geological and geographic contexts because there is an ever-wider range of ore deposits being exploited. The primary case studies are overland (S Wales) and underland (Isle of Portland) mine spaces that are ready for reutilisation. A digital twin is a virtual replica that will be created for each of the two primary case study landscapes. The virtual replicas will be used to model possible reuse scenario and test alternative futures without costly mistakes and socioenvironmental missteps. Input data will be required on the alternative future landscape uses and how they are selected. The project will therefore consist of a three-step approach: (1) understand how mine sites can be reused; (2) test the suitability of alternative futures using the digital twin models for the main case studies; (3) determine how twinning tools and policy can steer decision-making towards optimized positive outcomes.

Scalability will be interrogated using wider comparisons, e.g. with SW England and the Peak District). 

Methodology:  This work will be supported by Deep Digital Cornwall (DDC) lab facility at Camborne School of Mines (CSM). Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Doctoral Landscape Award

The student will: 

1. Desk-survey and consult on the ways that old mine/quarry/tip sites are internationally remined for: resources, environmental restoration, tourism or cultural heritage projects, alternative and innovative manufacturing and research industries,   

2. Field-survey using remote sensing and laser scanning, for data to replicate the primary UK post-extractive underground and overground landscape case studies, 

3. Digitally twin the landscapes using the DDC lab and test how they can be reconfigured for alternative uses, 

4. Analyse the sustainability potential for the alternative options using appropriate criteria and local consultation, to optimize solutions,  

5. Develop the technical approach as an optimization tool kit that is adaptable to multiple scenario, and  

6. Determine how the approach can be used to create impact by transforming decision making for management of industrial extraction and post-extractive resilience.

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