The DOI matches its Crossref record; 66 of the 67 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The Impact of Metal Mining on Global Water Stress and Regional Carrying Capacities—A GIS-Based Water Impact Assessment
Open accessAbstract
The consumption of freshwater in mining accounts for only a small proportion of the total water use at global and even national scales. However, at regional and local scales, mining may result in significant impacts on freshwater resources, particularly when water consumption surpasses the carrying capacities defined by the amount of available water and also considering environmental water requirements. By applying a geographic information system (GIS), a comprehensive water footprint accounting and water scarcity assessment of bauxite, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, uranium and zinc as well as gold, palladium, platinum and silver was conducted to quantify the influence of mining and refining of metal production on regional water availability and water stress. The observation includes the water consumption and impacts on water stress of almost 2800 mining operations at different production stages, e.g., preprocessed ore, concentrate and refined metal. Based on a brief study of mining activities in 147 major river basins, it can be indicated that mining’s contribution to regional water stress varies significantly in each basin. While in most regions mining predominantly results in very low water stress, not surpassing 0.1% of the basins’ available water, there are also exceptional cases where the natural water availability is completely exceeded by the freshwater consumption of the mining sector during the entire year. Thus, this GIS-based approach provides precise information to deepen the understanding of the global mining industry’s influence on regional carrying capacities and water stress.
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“which would further exacerbate freshwater consumption of mining activities, already a concern at local scales, 112 particularly for lithium extraction from brines. 113”
From Decarbonizing lithium-ion battery primary raw materials supply chain (2024) · cites this paper as [112]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Meißner, S.
- Affiliations
- University of Augsburg (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Meißner, Simon
- Venue
- Resources
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2021-11-26
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 120
- ISSN
- 2079-9276 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3215030826
- Cited by
- 181
- References
- 67
- Citations by year
- 2026: 15 · 2025: 26 · 2024: 116 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 6
- FWCI
- 11.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Resources (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- OPUS (Augsburg University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Environmental Impact and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water Resources and Sustainability
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Water Science and Technology › Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies
- Keywords
- metal mining, water stress, water footprint, carrying capacity, water scarcity, freshwater use, mining operations, river basins, mineral processing, metal refining, environmental water requirements
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