Citation

Guerrero FM, Lozano M, Rueda-Cantuche JM. Disasters 2008; 32(1): 19-40.

Affiliation

Department of Economics, Quantitative Methods and Economic History at Pablo de Olavide University, Spain.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-7717.2007.01025.x

PMID

18217916

Abstract

On 25 April 1998, the mineral waste retaining wall at the Swedish-owned pyrite mine at Aznalcallar (Seville, Spain) burst, causing the most harmful environmental and socio-economic disaster in the history of the River Guadiamar basin. The damage was so great that the regional government decided in May 1998 to finance a comprehensive, multidisciplinary research initiative with the objectiveof eradicating or at least minimising all of the negative social, economic and environmental impacts. This paper utilises a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis to identify eight strategic measures aimed at providing policymakers with key guidelines on implementing a sustainable development model, in a broad sense. Empirical evidence, though, reveals that, to date, major efforts to tackle the negative impacts have centred on environmental concerns and that the socio-economic consequences have not been completely mitigated.

Language: en