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Recent Developments in Environmental Impact Assessment with Regard to Mining of Deep-Sea Mineral Resources

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Deep-Sea Mining

Abstract

Growing attention to seabed mineral resources is being paid, private enterprises as well as governmental organizations are beginning to develop them. Along with this, more applications for development of new areas beyond national jurisdiction have been submitted to the International Seabed Authority. In addition, some development licenses in the sea areas under jurisdiction of coastal countries have been also issued. Furthermore, some of the countries and enterprises working towards development of mining technologies have announced model mining systems that they had contrived. In response to these developments, increased accuracy and efficiency are required in the field of environmental impact assessment. Besides, the United Nations and related organizations, as well as the Convention of Biological Diversity Conference of the Parties, have discussed how marine environment should be conserved from coastal areas to the deep seabed. Thus far, plans for environmental conservation have not been considered as a primary issue in the development of deep-sea mineral resources. With this background, this chapter will introduce how Japan has considered developing methodologies for environmental impact assessment, followed by the advanced environmental conservation measures with international trends taken into account.

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Acknowledgement

This study was conducted as a part of next-generation technology for ocean resources exploration, which is one of cross-ministerial strategic innovation promotion program (SIP), organized by Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. Authors would like to express our gratitude to members of “Research and Development Center for Submarine Resources” of “Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)” for their valuable advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokosuka, Japan

    Y. Shirayama, H. Itoh & T. Fukushima

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  1. Y. Shirayama
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  2. H. Itoh
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  3. T. Fukushima
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Correspondence to Y. Shirayama .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India

    Rahul Sharma

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Shirayama, Y., Itoh, H., Fukushima, T. (2017). Recent Developments in Environmental Impact Assessment with Regard to Mining of Deep-Sea Mineral Resources. In: Sharma, R. (eds) Deep-Sea Mining. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52557-0_15

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