Post-mining Remnants and Revitalization

Abstract

The historic post-mining objects deserve special attention due to their high cognitive and didactic value. Conducting the revitalization of such facilities is aimed at preserving the mining cultural heritage, and as a result, it will insert attractiveness to the region. The publication attempts to present an approach to the issues of revitalization of post-mining objects and their analysis in Poland, Spain, and UK. In Poland, there is the Revitalization Act, which comprehensively defines stages and ways of conducting revitalization. Spanish legal regulations do not provide for a separate legal act on revitalization, but they are based on mining Law, environmental law, and cultural heritage law. On the other hand, legal regulations in UK do not provide solutions for the revitalization of post-mining areas. However, land leases could incorporate within them, prior to any industrial or mining activities commencement, a requirement for re-stabilization or returning the land to a safe environmental condition on activity completion. Despite the considerable diversity of legal conditions in the described countries, revitalization measures are conducted with positive results, as illustrated by the Gold Mine in Zloty Stok, La Tortilla Mine in Linares, and revitalization of King Edward Mine, an old mining site in Cornwall.

Transforming Brownfields as Tourism Destinations and Their Sustainability on the Example of Slovakia

“…Theoretical-methodological issues of postmining brownfields secondary use (mining of devastated areas and abandoned mines) after revitalization and commercial re-use in practice in other economic areas are addressed by, e.g., [15,38,[78][79][80][81][82][83][84].…”

“…The revitalization of postmining brownfields for tourism or mining tourism has been addressed in Germany [85,86], Italy [39,40], the Czech Republic [18,87], Slovakia [6,61], Romania [88], Poland [84,[89][90][91], and Australia [92].…”

Sustainable Social and Environmental Evaluation of Post-Industrial Facilities in a Closed Loop Perspective in Coal-Mining Areas in Poland

“…The revitalization-oriented actions should be performed cautiously, in particular when the mining facility has significant cultural potential. This is the case when relics of mining activity are preserved, which-after the revitalization is completed-can become an important piece of heritage related to mining culture [28,29]. The actions undertaken in post-industrial areas should be supported both by members of local communities and by cooperating experts representing various scientific disciplines [30].…”

Environmentally Friendly Rock Mining—Case Study of the Limestone Mine “Górażdże”, Poland

“…Various possibilities of the reclamation and management of post-mining areas have appeared and resulted in many classifications of reclamation directions. On the basis of the systematics developed so far by Kaźmierczak et al, [20,24,31] made an attempt to create systematics that define all the possible directions of the reclamation of post-mining areas. In this system, the division into general and detailed directions has been maintained, which is due to the fact that general directions are insufficient to properly describe the functions to be performed by the post-mining area.…”

“…At the same time, as practical examples show, areas after exploitation of rock resources can bring new and very important natural, landscape, economic and recreational values to the environment if they are properly treated at the stage of the spatial planning and decision-making process in the management of regional and local environmental resources. Examples of high values for the preservation of biodiversity and geodiversity and the promotion of geotourism are provided in publications [20][21][22][23].…”