Post Mining

The now depleted Vereinigte Ville lignite mine south of Cologne/Germany has been used as a landfill facility since the 1970s. Each year the 300 ha site receives some 1.7 Mt of mineral waste of landfill class I, II and III. Approval has now been given for a total disposal volume of around 90 M m3. The facility has a workforce ...

The evolving hyperspectral sensors have become a big ally for a large range of applications in remote sensing for the monitoring of a variety of earth ecosystems and processes (natural and anthropogenic). The processes occurring within the mining life cycle are not an exception. Hyperspectral sensors have been widely used in a large number of applications ranging from exploration, operation ...

The decision to reconfigure and straighten the route of the Emscher river in 1902 was to herald the start of a dismal future for the waterway as the industrial age went on to reach its peak. While the Ruhr and Lippe became fresh water streams for the Ruhr valley, the Emscher, which was more centrally located between the other two ...

The European Commission has been striving to initiate an EU-wide coal phase-out since the end of 2017 in the form of the initiative “Coal Regions in Transition”. The aim of the activities is to provide structural support to the EU’s coal regions during their move – the “transition” – away from coal. The initiative also represents a pioneering project on ...

The sustainable management of geological resources presents a challenge for environmental and geomonitoring actions with all the diverse tasks and assignments involved, such as water management and the monitoring of environmental changes. Today’s geo- and environmental monitoring processes involve the observation of many different factors and use satellite-supported optical remote detection with multispectral or hyperspectral sensors and radar remote sensing. ...

In 2011, the NRW mining authority initiated the systematic analysis and evaluation of surface fracture relevant shafts within the state of North Rhine-Westphalia’s area of responsibility as part of risk management regarding potential hazards of abandoned mines. The measures that have been taken subsequently aim to, amongst others, prevent physical injuries or substantial damage to property through surface fracturing. As ...

The mining industry of the past has left long-lasting tracks in the territorial structure of the Ruhr area. Dealing responsibly with the area’s mining heritage in terms of sustainable regional developments is a major challenge. In 2014, the 17 pertinent municipalities and districts, together with the state government of North-Rhine Westphalia, RAG Aktiengesellschaft and the Ruhr Regional Association (RVR), concluded ...

North-Rhine Westphalia is among the federal states that are richest in raw materials. In numerous operations, quartz gravel, quartz sand, clay and bedrock are won, provided, they are subject to the guidelines of the Federal Mining Act (BBergG) and supervised by the District Council Arnsberg, Department for Mining and Energy in North-Rhine Westphalia (mining authority of North-Rhine Westphalia), located in ...

The Research Center of Post-Mining (FZN) at the TH Georg Agricola University (THGA) in Bochum/Germany has significantly expanded the range of its research programme since 2019/2020. Its scope has now been broadened by the new research division “Reactivation and Transition”. Research in this division focuses on land development and regional policy, socio-economic aspects and governance of post-mining. Emphasis is less ...

The NRW Mining Authority in Dortmund has been employing remote sensing data as part of its operating remit for quite a number of years. Orthophotographs and laser scanning data have been used by the NRW Geobasis services for basic survey purposes since the start of the millennium and after 2011 these techniques were also applied as risk management tools for ...