HISTORY OF CLIMATE DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON MINING AND RECLAMATION IN THE MOST BASIN - RESEARCH RESULTS AND PROPOSED ADAPTATION MEASURES

Abstract

The Research Institute for Brown Coal j. s. c. (VUHU) has been involved in the research project of the EU Research Fund of Coal and Steel - The impact of extreme weather events on mining operations for four years. The project is focused on assessing the impact of climate change on mining activities in major European coal basins. Other participants are scientific teams from Poland, Great Britain, Spain, Germany and Greece. This is the last year of the project solving, so this paper summarizes the results of the solution for the Czech Republic. The first part of the paper summarizes the knowledge of the historical development of the climate, including significant climatic disasters. Attempts to reconstruct the paleoclimate in the Tertiary based on the evaluation of preserved geological phenomena are also briefly evaluated here. The next part of the paper evaluates the development of temperature and precipitation in the wider area of the Most Basin, including the forecast for the future and the impact of climate change on mining and reclamation. Therefore, the greatest attention is paid to the proposed adaptation strategies. All laboratory analyses carried out as part of this research were carried out by VUHU testing laboratories accredited by CIA according to CSN EN 150-IEC 17025 on the basis of internal methodological procedures based on relevant standards.