Spain's greatest and most recent mine disaster.
On 25 April 1998, the mineral waste retaining wall at the Swedish-owned pyrite mine at Aznalcóllar (Seville, Spain) burst, causing the most harmful environmental and socio-economic disaster in the history of the River Guadiamar basin. The damage was so great that the regional government decided in May 1998 to finance a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research initiative with the objective of eradicating or at least minimising all of the negative social, economic and environmental impacts. This paper utilises a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify eight strategic measures aimed at providing policymakers with key guidelines on implementing a sustainable development model, in a broad sense. Empirical evidence, though, reveals that, to date, major efforts to tackle the negative impacts have centred on environmental concerns and that the socio-economic consequences have not been completely mitigated.
Guerrero
Flor Ma
FM
Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History at Pablo de Olavide University, Spain.
Lozano
Macarena
M
Rueda-Cantuche
José M
JM
D004190:Disasters; D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004782:Environmental Health; D006801:Humans; D007501:Iron / Q000633:toxicity*; D008906:Mining; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016730:Program Development; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013030:Spain; D013440:Sulfides / Q000633:toxicity*
D013440:Sulfides; C011342:pyrite; D007501:Iron