Global vulnerability assessment of tailings dams. Moa, Cuba

Abstract

Climate change is a risk trigger for tailings dam failures in the mining industry. This factor increases the vulnerability to natural and anthropic dangers of the works, resulting in an increase of environmental incidents of these structures, as they reach greater height, putting at risk the population, the infrastructure and the environment. In this research, an evaluation of the vulnerability of a tailings dam to different hydrometeorological, seismic and technological hazards is carried out, determining through the application of qualitative and quantitative methods the global vulnerability of the work. A zoning is carried out for the evaluation of the danger of natural and anthropic events. The result of the global vulnerability assessment is “very high” in zones B, C and D of the construction site and “high” in zone A. The level of predisposition to damage the structure is “very high”.