A Brief Introduction
Abandoned and orphaned mine sites have received much attention over the
last six years. However, the justified need to deal with global warming
is stealing resources, and focus away from this equally urgent but relatively invisible problem.
geo–Logical is a viable long-term
solution that by design will not compromise efforts to deal with other environmental issues.
Purposely
geo–Logical will assume management of abandoned mines thereby freeing up both public
and private sector resources. As a consequence focus of citizenry can shift to global warming worry free.
Global warming issues, unlike abandoned mines, affect every sector of the economy. Any initiative
will cost extensive dollars, or lost dollars, and success will be completely dependent upon
similar initiatives implemented on a worldwide basis. It is a daunting task. On the other hand abandoned
mines are a local issue. Success of remediation is tied exclusively to the will to get it done.
Proceeded by extensive data collection, and again after works are completed, to prove success.
The
geo–Logical solution is doable because it depends on no other country to contribute to its success.
Abandoned Mines Tirade
Clearly abandoned mines are a very localized issue.
Perceived as contributing to pollution, as a rule, to only small nearby populations that,
again as a rule, are very aware of the pollution blamed on the mine sites. While local
residents usually are very aware of the issues, the affect of pollution is rarely limited
to the local area. Streams feed rivers and rivers feed the ocean.
Sadly, local residents are also all-to-accustomed to what they view as broken promises. Rarely,
however, are promises given. They are perceived. Locals enamored by truly concerned government officials
find it easy to perceive change when a flurry of activity takes place. Studies are completed,
meetings held, and plans presented. Then inevitability priorities change, or some entity is perceived
as responsible. The focus shifts to who should pay or what truly would be the best solution.
Change stalls and inactivity drags on till locals feel slighted.
The blame game usually starts early and everyone blames everyone. All the while the mine sites
wait patiently. geo–Logical will not play the blame game. geo–Logical
will play politics a bit by organizing meetings but the focus will be activity … steady activity
while determining the best cure. Blame will be left for politicians to handle.
geo–Logical will of course ease tensions but the primary focus will always be research
with extensive data collection to determine were the pollution originates, the severity of the
pollution, and the means to best deal with causes discovered.
Education Is The Cure
The cure for abandoned mines is commitment and only one sector truly
has the ability to stay the course. The education sector has the infrastructure to digest
created data, complete needed research, and satisfy the human resource needs in quantity.
Additionally, true commitment demands a sector that is accustomed to forecast models
that tick off time in increments of decades.
In the coming decades student populations are also projected to grow with student/teacher
ratios suffering. Some mine sites will be ideal for satellite classrooms to ease that
growth pain. Others will always be ideal for field trips geared to all levels including K12.
The opportunity to inject an early appreciation about the cause and effect of pollution
needs no elaboration.
Moreover Mother Nature's classroom, complimented with in field created teaching aides, demystifies
words and inspires students. The environmental and geological principles are easier
to grasp with hands-on instruction by excitable teachers. But the education sector's
return for commitment goes beyond inspiration and provides the opportunity to solicit
funds for pure research while returning to society a solution to the abandoned mine issue.
Mining Data From Abandoned Mines
Most of the abandoned mines, in their day, were viable producing enterprises and
through
geo–Logical they can continue to be so. It is data that will be the
life-blood of this new enterprise. The enormous amount of data generated will need
to be accessible, organized, and compatible with the plethora of data collection
programs in use today.
All coding will be done using
php,
a widely used general-purpose scripting language,
and
MySQL,
the world's most popular open source database. Additionally, all scripts
created will be free of copyright as per the spirit of the open-source software
they are based upon. Further, the use of php and MySQL will ensure that everything
created will never be dependent upon proprietary software and that experienced coders
will always be available to modify or enhance scripts.
To preserve a complete audit trail it will be policy to scan all hand written
documents and photograph sample collection activities. The created images will be
linked back to the data entered into databases using various indexing schemes
such as maps and photo albums.
geo–Logical will not only mine the raw data but process it into a polished finished product.
Technology is Cool
The
geo–Logical concept utilizes new technologies to deliver remote based
education as well as disseminating the large datasets, which will be obtained
from abandoned mines. In 1999 tools on this website were developed to
demonstrate the use of
ASP
and
DHTML
to build web-based study tools, at the time an exciting new concept.
They were developed as a project for a course instructed by
Marshall Soules,
which mandated use of innovative technologies to present media on the Internet.
geo–Logical will exploit online information technology and Marshall's
principles in achieving its goals.
A Brief History of geo-Logical
geo–Logical began in 2001 as a student project for a geology
course instructed by
Steve Earle at
Malaspina University,
in British Columbia, Canada. Steve volunteered countless hours evaluating prospective
sites on Vancouver Island and his knowledge of the issues contributed much to the concept.
Plan 2007
The primary goal for 2007 was pre-launching this web site and re-establishing
industry contacts. That goal has been accomplished. The plan to tour abandoned mine
sites in northern BC, Yukon as well as Alaska, sadly, will need to wait for time and
money. Regardless investigation of the current status of abandoned mine sites has
revealed the need for a long-term solution remains so
geoLogical will continue to 'plod' along.
geoLogical is very interested in exploring various ideas and the concept is certain to
morph as feedback rolls in. While there is currently no plan for aggressive marketing
of this concept, at least two impacted communities will be contacted in the later part of
2007 to mine their reaction to the concept. The results will be published here in early 2008.
Concurrently research into the best manner to deal with large datasets will continue
and relevant links to industry developments will continue to be added. Anyone interested
in exploring abandoned mine sites should post a message or contact John Petzelt directly
at
petzelja@hotmail.com.
This Website
geo–Logical will now go beyond a student project. This site,
along with its tools, is being converted to
php
on Linux based servers utilizing current technology.
When first developed the tools here were rather unique and created to provide
functionality not available on the web. Today there are plenty of tools available
and it is doubtful these will ever be promoted for general use. They are primarily
here to provide a hint of how collected data will be presented for use by researchers.
The site, along with developed tools, will be functional without use of 'flash' or
other fancy features common on commercial sites. With that said there is also no
legitimate reason to make it boring!
There will be multiple methods to extract and view data, expect: map-linked
images and datasets; image albums with dialogue linked back to maps and datasets;
vanilla style data tables fully indexed for complex search parameters;
and downloadable datasets built on demand from current datasets in every common
format. As well, use of local and remote servers to mirror the data will ensure
access to datasets regardless conditions at any one site.
As for this current site most content was originally based on tables, frames,
and pop-ups that are no longer required using current technologies. However,
when the site was launched it was the best means to achieve desired formatting.
If pop-ups, for example, are disabled portions of this site will not function.
As conversion proceeds expect broken links and format loss till the site, like
the concept, matures and is formally published.
