Ecological Systems and Devices Annotation << Back ON THE ISSUE OF THE METHODOLOGY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT OF THE CONSEQUENCES OF INTEGRATED SUBSOIL DEVELOPMENT Yu.P. Galchenko The antagonistic contradiction between the biological essence of man and the abiological ways in which he receives the energy of the Sun to create a food base and his habitat is the determining factor that forms the image of our technocratic civilization. Within the framework of the model used, the protection and preservation of the natural environment is more of a struggle with consequences than with causes. The main contradiction between man and nature is that man, being part of the living nature, has changed its ecological niche in such a way that all the resources for its existence (including funds for nature protection) it gets by destroying the biota and abiota of natural ecosystems, including the lithosphere of our planet. In relation to mountain ecology, solving this problem means moving to a strategy of co-evolution of two antagonistic systems. Then priority relates to the problem of creating a methodology of evaluation of ecological hazard of anthropogenic factors (and, hence, the degree of environmental safety), not the magnitude of the impact, and reaction of biological systems perceive the impact. At the same time, it is necessary to consider two levels of the problem – General structural and ecosystem. Ensuring the ecological safety of production for the natural biota of the Earth is reduced to finding and implementing a measure of the inevitable technogenic disturbance of the abiotic component of the ecosystem, in which its biota retains the ability to self-repair within the framework of evolution according to the laws of cyclic succession. The concept of environmental safety of mining production in an artificially balanced ecosystem for economic purposes can be defined as ensuring such a level of man-made impacts that the ecosystem (and above all the soil) retains its economic potential. The content of the concept of environmental safety of mining production is related to ensuring human health, as well as the preservation of buildings, structures and communications that are important for its life support. Keywords: integrated development of subsoil resources; ecological crisis of geospheres; ecological doctrine; development of deposits; technogenic impact; types of environmental problems; assessment methodology; consequences; criteria; technical standards. DOI: 10.25791/esip.05.2020.1155 Pp. 24-34.