THE INFLUENCE OF MINING ACTIVITIES IN THE AIR QUALITY AND STRATEGIES FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT: THE TAIYUAN (CHINA) CASE STUDY

In 1998, a list of the ten most polluted cities was released by the World Health Organization (WHO). Taiyuan, one of the Chinese industrial, energetic and chemical industry hubs, ranks foremost among these cities. In January 2012, the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the Tsinghua University (THU) jointly issued the "Toward an Environmentally Sustainable Future Country Environmental Analysis of the People's Republic of China (PRC)", which showed that less than 1% of the 500 largest cities in the PRC meet the air quality standards recommended by the WHO, and 7 cities in the PRC are ranked among the 10 most polluted cities in the world. Once again, Taiyuan in the Shanxi Province was ranked first. Based on the case of the industrial city of Taiyuan in Shanxi province, this paper shows how this problem is studied and the methodology developed to bring solutions to improve the reduction in air pollution maintaining the city as one of the most economic and industrial centers in China. For this, the paper firstly makes a detailed description of its air contamination in recent years and then analyses those polluting factors, including the old and irrational industrial layout, special geographical location, meteorological condition of Taiyuan and the intensive mining operations of surrounding areas. With these combined effects of various factors, the paper discusses how to effectively improve its pollution situation.