Prague SWEMP 2010 May 24-26

12th International Symposium on Environmental Issues and Waste Management in Energy and Mineral Production SWEMP 2010
held in May 24-26, 2010
Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Czech Republic

The objectives of this SWEMP event were to discuss the various environmental issues, technical, economic and legal aspects and problems that the world energy, coal and minerals production is faced with, and to identify future courses of action in research, expert education, government and industry policies and international cooperation. This world-wide recognized symposium had been held in the past in several countries including Brazil, Poland, India, Turkey, Greece, Italy, Canada, China, Ukraine, and Australia.

The SWEMP symposium 2010 has attracted worldwide participation.  Participants have come from two dozen countries from all continents expect from Australia,  and their number reached nearly one hundred.  In view of highly topical nature of this international symposium especially the interest from Asia  was welcomed showing the growing respect to environmental aspects of nature resources use and achievements in land reclamation and new landscapes creation. Apart from the hosting country more than 5-member delegations came from Canada, Turkey, Germany, and Romania,  more than one delegate came from the USA, Iraq, China, Korea, Poland, Italy, Portugal, and Greece.

The major topics covered by the symposium included:
  1. Mining and reclamation/rehabilitation and ecological restoration                
  2. Water management and remediation of contaminated water                
  3. Computer modeling, GIS and remote sensing                
  4. Mine site closure, reliability of geotechnical structures and tailings                
  5. Health and safety                
  6. Environmental issues                
  7. Carbon capture and storage
                       
The delegates appreciated the expertise of plenary speakers who covered the entire span of symposium topics:
  • Prof. Carsten Drebenstedt, TU Freiberg, Gemany: Rock management - a key factor for  environmental impacts of mining
  • Assoc. Prof. Vladimir  Kebo, TU Ostrava, Czech Republic: New technologies in control of mining processes
  • Dr. Richard Poulin, Laval University, Canada: Environmental bonding in mining – three jurisdictions compared
  • Dr. Sven Knutsson, Luleĺ University of Technology, Sweden: Tailings dams - experiences and comparisons
  • Ing. Michel Sponar, European Commission: European legal framework on the management of extractive waste – The Mining Waste Directive - 2006/21/EC
  • Associate Prof. Jan Pokorny, ENKI Trebon, Czech Republic: Direct effect of water and plants on local climate and distribution of solar energy – case study from North-West Bohemia open cast mine region.

The technical sessions were chaired by acknowledged leaders in their fields of expertise. More 60 presentations were given in 7 technical sessions. Full texts of the 75 papers were published both in CD and paper proceedings.
As this SWEMP was held in an academic environment a Student Award was introduced to help young authors to present their results in such an occasion. Four young authors were awarded: A. Jacobs from Canada, M. Kermani from Canada/Iraq and O. Cudlín and Z. Karova from the Czech Republic.
The symposium was sincerely guided by Dr. Raj K. Singhal, the Chairman of the International Committee, and supported by a number of universities and organizations.  The generous support of the SD – Severočeské doly a.s., the biggest  Czech brown coal mining company, was gratefully acknowledged.

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Dr. Raj Singhal,
Chairman
International Organizing Committee
Canada
Dr. Petr Sklenička,
Dean
Faculty of Environmental Sciences
University of Life Sciences in Prague
Czech Republic

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