A methodological framework to assess the socio-economic impact of underground quarries: A case study from Belgian Limburg

This study developed a methodology to assess the socio-economic impact of the presence and collapse of underground limestone quarries. For this we rely on case study evidence from Riemst, a village located in Eastern Belgium and use both secondary and primary data sources. A sinkhole inventory as well as data about the prevention costs provided by the municipality was used. To estimate the recreational values of the quarries, visitor data was obtained from the tourist office of Riemst. Next, two surveys were conducted among inhabitants and four real estate agents and one notary. The direct and indirect damages were assessed using respectively the repair cost and production and real estate value losses. The total yearly direct and indirect damage equals (sic)415 000 (+/-(sic)85 000) and more than half of it can be attributed to the depreciation of real estate ((sic) 230 000). The quarries have recreational, cultural-historical and ecological values and thus generate societal benefits. The yearly recreational value was at least (sic)613 000 in 2012 values. The ecological and cultural-historical values augment to (sic)180 000 per year (in 2012 values). Further, our study indicates that the gains from filling up the quarries below the houses located above an underground limestone quarry outweigh the costs in the case study area. The net gain from filling up the underground quarry ranges (sic)38 700 to (sic)101 700 per house. This is only the lower bound of the net gain from filling up these underground quarries since preventive filling makes future collapses less likely so that future direct repair costs will be most likely smaller. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.