Abstract:
The presence of old abandoned workings underlying existing residential or planned residential development is a problem to land territorial authorities, developers and residents. Where the regulations controlling land development are managed on an effects-based approach, the hazards from abandoned underground workings present a particular problem to territorial authorities since they have overall control of development at any location. This in some way implies the acceptance of these risks and the acceptance of liability should anything occur. This paper will focus on the subsidence zone affected by surface intervention such as crownholes and the need to define the boundary of this zone in a practical engineering sense. A probabilistic framework is used to model the geological and mining uncertainties inherent in this type of analysis. The consequences of an event occurring and any remedial action taken are combined with the uncertainties to express the outcome in terms of risk. This approach is compared to other natural and manmade hazards influencing land development.
