This review will follow the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence guidelines and standards for evidence synthesis in environmental management [22] and it conforms to ROSES reporting standards [23] (see Additional file 1).
Searching for articles
The aim of this map is to collate and describe the environmental and social impacts of mining and potential mitigation measures as they are conceived by practitioners working with EISs and SIAs that can be further configured into a framework. As a result, the extent of searching will be driven by the need to reach information/theoretical saturation to complete a comprehensive list of impacts and mitigation measures and not to extract and synthesise all published and relevant information on the subject [24]. Once a specific outcome (an impact or a mitigation measure) has been identified, new occurrences of these outcomes (from other sources) will not be relevant unless they expand or modify the existing outcome. Since the knowledge base consists of technical documents, potentially following specific EIA/SIA guidelines (e.g. [4]), the reports and the impacts and mitigation measures reported within them are likely to be somewhat formulaic and repetitious (particularly within a country and relating to similar types of mining activities), and as a result we believe it will be clear when information saturation has been reached for a specific country, region or type of mining (i.e. no new action-outcome links are identified when screening additional documents). In addition, we will track the number of novel outcomes per manuscript, and plot these on an accumulation curve. We will stop searching for new outcomes as close to the asymptote as resources allow.
The search strategy will include two phases. First, we will purposively search for 5 diverse examples of EIAs and SIAs from each eligible country/region (see Population, above). The initial screening of the included examples will be conducted simultaneously with meta-data extraction to allow identification of theoretical saturation. Second, and based on the results of the initial search (and extraction), we will randomly select an additional 5 further EIAs/SIAs from each country. We will repeat this second step until new outcomes (see Eligibility criteria for a list of eligible outcomes) cease to emerge and all elements of the map are well-described (i.e. once the outcome accumulation curve is close to the asymptote and the theoretical saturation is reached).
Since there are no public repositories of EIAs/SIAs for each eligible country/region we will look for studies by searching several different sources as follows: specialist websites; web-based search engines; public archives, and, direct stakeholder contact and calls for relevant information (see details for each of these searches below).
Specialist websites
We will search for EIAs and SIAs in the following websites and national public repositories:
-
1.
Alaska, USA EPA’s EIS Database (from October 1, 2012) (https://cdxnodengn.epa.gov/cdx-enepa-II/public/action/eis/search), Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (https://www.boem.gov/About-BOEM/BOEM-Regions/Alaska-Region/Environment/Environmental-Analysis/Environmental-Impact-Statements-and–Major-Environmental-Assessments.aspx), The National Environmental Policy Act (https://ceq.doe.gov/index.html) and The Permitting Dashboard (https://www.permits.performance.gov).
-
2.
Canada Canadian Environmental Assessment Registry (https://ceaa-acee.gc.ca/050/evaluations), Nunavut Impact Review Board (http://www.nirb.ca), Northern Territory Environmental Protection Authority (https://ntepa.nt.gov.au/environmental-assessments), Yukon Environment and Socio-economic Assessment Board Online Registry (http://www.yesabregistry.ca/wfm/lamps/yesab/lowspeed/projectsearch.jsp;time=1536745438401), The Mackenzie Valley Environmental Impact Review Board (http://reviewboard.ca/), Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (https://www.pdac.ca/).
-
3.
Finland Joint website on Finland’s environmental administration (http://www.ymparisto.fi/fi-FI/Asiointi_luvat_ja_ymparistovaikutusten_arviointi/Ymparistovaikutusten_arviointi/YVApaatokset), the Finnish Network of Sustainable Mining (https://www.kaivosvastuu.fi/).
-
4.
Greenland Government of Greenland (http://naalakkersuisut.gl).
In Sweden, the EIAs might be obtained from the Mining Inspectorate (https://www.sgu.se/bergsstaten/lagstiftning/sammanfattning-av-regelsystemet/) and found in the archives of the court system. We have yet to identify public repositories for EIS/SIAs in the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, and Russia (also see “Supplementary searches”.
Depending on functionalities of each of these repositories, we will search for relevant EIAs and SIAs either manually (i.e. searching relevant pages of organisational websites) or using simple English and Swedish language search terms: mine; mining; iron, copper, lead, nickel, zinc, gold, silver, molybdenum, “impact assessment”, “impact statement”, “transboundary impact assessment”.
Search engines
Searches will also be performed in Google Scholar, which has been shown to be an especially effective tool for grey literature searches [25]. These searches will combine terms related to metal mining with impact assessment terms as follows:
allintitle: mine OR mining OR iron OR copper OR lead OR nickel OR zinc OR silver OR gold OR molybdenum “impact assessment”
The first 1000 search results will be extracted as citations using Publish or Perish software [26].
Supplementary searches
As some countries do not have a public repository of EIAs or SIAs, we will contact stakeholders and request eligible EIAs/SIAs. Relevant stakeholders are being identified by the 3MK project under which this mapping exercise is being conducted. We will also contact responsible agencies and will announce calls for EIAs and SIAs through relevant networks such as ResearchGate, Resource Extraction and Sustainable Arctic Communities website (https://www.rexsac.org) or through networks connected to the Arctic EIA project of the Arctic Council Sustainable Development Working Group (https://www.sdwg.org/activities/sdwg-projects-2017-2019/arctic-eia/arctic-eia-new/).
Assembling library of search results
A library of all the search results will be assembled in an excel spreadsheet and/or a review management software (e.g. EPPI reviewer [27]) and any possible duplicated records will be removed prior to screening.
Article screening and study eligibility criteria
Screening process
Screening will be conducted at two levels: at title, and at full text. Potentially relevant titles will be retrieved at full text (tracking those that cannot be accessed and reporting this in the final review). Retrieved records will then be screened at full text, with each record being assessed by one experienced reviewer.
Prior to commencing screening, consistency checking will be performed with all reviewers on a subset of articles at both title and full text level screening. A subset of 40 title records and 5 full text records will be independently screened by two reviewers. The results of this screened subset will then be compared between reviewers, with all disagreements discussed in detail and eligibility criteria clarified where necessary. Where the level of agreement is low (e.g. below c. 0.6 agreement according to the Kappa test), further consistency checking will be performed on an additional set of articles and then discussed.
Eligibility criteria
Eligible population(s) Environmental and social systems around or within the direct sphere of influence of (proposed) activities related to gold, iron, copper, nickel, zinc, silver, molybdenum and lead mining in Arctic and boreal regions: Alaska (USA), Canada, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway (including Svalbard), Sweden, Finland and Russia.
Eligible intervention(s)/exposure(s) Metal mining construction, operation, maintenance, expansion, decommissioning, reopening, repurposing and abandonment; and proposed mitigation measures.
Eligible outcome(s) Any affected aspect of social, technological or environmental systems. The impacts and mitigation measures are theoretical, potential or predicted.
Eligible study type(s) EIAs and SIAs. We will include EIAs/SIAs published in English and Swedish (which reflects language skills of the review team). Eligible studies with full texts in non-eligible languages will be recorded, but they will not be included in the final map. We will identify them as potentially relevant but not assessed. We will discuss a potential for cultural bias in the final report, since criteria for generating SIA and EIA reports may vary in different contexts reflecting local perceptions of social and environmental values.
We will provide a list of documents excluded at full text, with reasons for exclusion provided for all excluded reports.
Study validity assessment
In accordance with systematic mapping methodological guidance [28], study validity assessment will not be conducted.
Data coding strategy
Coding and meta-data will be extracted into a spreadsheet (or a relational database (e.g. MS Access)). Information on the type of mining activity, location of the (real or planned) mine, type of impacts, and suggested mitigation measures will be extracted. A draft coding sheet for meta-data extraction is provided in Additional file 2. This draft coding sheet was produced through initial scoping and testing by two reviewers.
To test the repeatability of coding and meta-data extraction, two reviewers will independently code and extract meta-data from 5 eligible EIAs and/or SIAs. All disagreements will be discussed, and the coding and meta-data extraction sheet and instructions will be revised where necessary.
Study mapping and presentation
Extracted meta-data will be described narratively. From extracted outcomes (predicted and potential impacts and mitigation measures) we will produce an impact and mitigation framework, linking actions (e.g. mining operation) to outcomes (e.g. alternation of the soil profile and related proposed mitigation measures). We will compare the divergencies and convergences between this framework (based on practitioners’ knowledge) and a list of impacts and mitigation measures reported in research evidence (see [11]). The identified knowledge will also be presented in the form of an interactive, searchable open-access database containing the detailed coding and extracted meta-data. The contents of the systematic map database will be visualised in an evidence atlas (an interactive cartographic map).