{"id":12041,"date":"2021-04-19T11:17:08","date_gmt":"2021-04-19T09:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/2025.mining-report.de\/english\/?page_id=12041"},"modified":"2022-01-20T10:45:39","modified_gmt":"2022-01-20T09:45:39","slug":"post-mining-research-on-reactivation-and-transition","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mining-report.de\/english\/post-mining-research-on-reactivation-and-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Post-Mining Research on Reactivation and Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"T<\/span>he 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 \u201cReactivation and Transition\u201d. Research in this division focuses on land development and regional policy, socio-economic aspects and governance of post-mining. Emphasis is less on natural science, geosciences and engineering and more on economics and geography, spatial planning and political issues related to post-mining, although the work in the research centre has interdisciplinary ties to the aforementioned disciplines. The following article provides an overview of the current work in this research division as well as the directions the research will take in the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n\n\t\t
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Authors\/Autoren:\u00a0<\/strong>Prof. Dr. Kai van de Loo, Dipl.-Ing. J\u00fcrgen Br\u00fcggemann, Forschungszentrum Nachbergbau (FZN), Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola (THGA), Bochum\/Germany \n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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In 2018, coal mining in Germany came to an end. While post-mining development had begun in the south of the Ruhr Valley as early as the 1970s when the last mine in that area was closed, the entire region has now become supremely conscious of post-mining. The special focus here is initially on the so-called perpetual tasks of post-mining in the water management sector (mine water retention, polder measures, groundwater purification) and their geoscientific challenges. In addition, there is a need for successful management of the physical, ecological and socio-economic legacies of the discontinued coal mining and support for the further transition of the (now former) coal regions along the Ruhr and Saar Rivers and in Ibbenb\u00fcren. The political decisions in 2020 to exit coal-fired power generation in Germany by no later than 2038 also heralded the end of domestic lignite mining, bringing the issue of post-mining to the fore in the lignite regions as well. Since all mining is finite \u2013 as demonstrated in Germany in the past by the examples of iron ore mining in Western Germany or uranium ore mining in Eastern Germany \u2013 the industry must always face at some point and everywhere in the world a transition to post-mining and its specific problems, which vary in the magnitude of their seriousness in dependence on the circumstances in each case.<\/p>\n

In cognisance of this inevitability, the TH Georg Agricola University (THGA), Bochum\/Germany, has been focusing on this field by offering a special course of study in post-mining since 2012, and the Research Center of Post-Mining (FZN), established in 2015, is the first institution in Germany to concentrate explicitly on post-mining issues, including the restoration and subsequent use of the reclaimed areas and the path of the transition to post-mining structures. The first steps were taken with the endowment of the chair \u201cGeoengineering and Post-Mining\u201d and the re-accreditation of the work-study master\u2019s programme \u201cGeoengineering and Post-Mining\u201d and work continued to advance.<\/p>\n

In 2019 and 2020, the range of research activities at the FZN was expanded from the previous one pillar of perpetual tasks to include three additional research divisions, one of which is the division Reactivation and Transition that will be presented here in greater detail.<\/p>\n\n\t\t

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Guiding principle and research structure of the FZN<\/h4>\n\n\t\t
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The FZN is now an independent science and transfer institution of the THGA that enjoys national and international recognition.<\/p>\n

Research into gaining sustainable mastery over the impact of mine closures and the conversion of the former mine premises and infrastructures into facilities that can serve a meaningful use in the future are at the heart of the FZN\u2019s work. Research into socio-economic and structural policy aspects of reactivation and transition in addition to technical questions is being intensified.<\/p>\n

Still, the essential scientific basis for dealing with the challenges resulting from mine closures and post-mining activities has not yet been systematically developed and the various players have yet to be adequately interconnected in a network. The realisation of these basic conditions demands the initiation of innovation processes directed toward the actors in society, business and public administration. The FZN is taking on these tasks as well. It aspires to be a competent partner for all sectors of post-mining on an (inter)national level by bundling and integrating the various know-how carriers and their professional competencies. In pursuing these goals, the FZN simultaneously fosters a responsible and sustainable supply of raw materials for society as a whole within the sense of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (1) by anticipating the end of mining and the burdens that will result from its termination.<\/p>\n

Following the expansion of the range of its research, the FZN is now active in the four research divisions described below (Figure\u00a01):<\/p>\n