Waste rock
often needs to be covered to minimise or avoid hazardous environmental
impact. To achieve this various cover designs have been developed. The
main concepts include the construction of a barrier to avoid water
infiltration into waste rock and the so called ‘store and release
cover’. The latter uses the potential of vegetation and climatic
conditions to control deep drainage. For semiarid climatic conditions it
is yet not well understood, which role vegetation plays regarding water
depletion from the cover.
This project tests the design of the above described covers with the
main focus whether plants enhance or critically influence the water
storage capacity of the cover. In addition the capability and strategy
of vegetation to adapt to environments with limited water availability
during the majority of the growing season is investigated.
