Assessment of Carbon Dioxide Emission in Remediation Sites of Abandoned Metal Mine in Korea.

Recently, there has been an increased concern about emission of green house gases causing global warming in worldwide. Among others, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is the most abundant green house gas and can have adverse effect not only on eco system but also human activities. For this reason, the main objective of this research was to evaluate reduction efficiency of carbon dioxide with different remediation technology in abandoned mine where is one of the main source of carbon dioxide emission. Measurement of carbon dioxide was conducted with soda-lime method and compared with gas chromatography method. Emission of carbon dioxide from two different remediation sites (grass field and forest) was compared with control (bare field) site. Result of carbon dioxide measurement in forest, grass field, and bare field showed that the highest emission of carbon dioxide was observed in bare field with average emission rate of 303 CO₂/m²·day followed by grass field (99 CO₂/m²·day) and forest(49 CO₂/m²·day). However, no significant correlation was observed between carbon dioxide emission and environmental variables such as atmosphere temperature, soil temperature, and sunshine duration etc. Based on this result, we could conclude that best management practice (BMP) will be necessary to remediate abandoned mines for minimizing green house gas emission.