Analysis of Rock Raw Materials Transport and its Implications for Regional Development and Planning. Case Study of Lower Silesia (Poland)

Abstract

The movement of rock raw materials from source to demand areas is carried out predominately with road and railway transport. The latter is less damaging to infrastructure, the environment and society and is cheaper for longer distances, but it is also less flexible and not widely used. The Lower Silesia region in southwestern Poland is an important producer of rock raw materials and the principal provider of igneous and metamorphic dimension stones and crushed rocks in the country. A multicriteria scoring scheme has been developed and applied to identify mines presently using road transport, that are predisposed to switch to or include a railway form of transport. Four criteria have been proposed, C1&mdash

distance to railway loading point, C2&mdash

annual production of rock raw material, C3&mdash

economic reserves, and C4&mdash

type of rock raw material. The scoring scheme (classification) was developed based on the results of descriptive statistics for mines presently using railway or combined road and railway forms of transport. Two scenarios were analyzed, one with equal weights (0.25) and the other with higher significance of C1 = 0.40 and C2 = 0.30, and lower significance of C3 = 0.20 and C4 = 0.10. In the result, 24 mines were identified and ranked in terms of their potential to introduce railway transport. The proposed methodology can be used universally for other regions and countries, and the results will be included in drawing up regional spatial development policies.

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• http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12083165 under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by

• https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3165/pdf under the license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

• https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3165,

https://doaj.org/toc/2071-1050 under the license cc-by

• https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3165,

https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3165/pdf,

https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i8p3165-d345462.html,

https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/3016323776

• https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/8/3165/pdf,

http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su12083165

under the license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/