Environmental Recovery of Abandoned Mining Areas in Spain: Sustainability and New Landscapes in Some Case Studies

Abstract

The closure of open-cast mines has prompted the appearance of large, run-down and environmentally degraded spaces. Current legislation requires that such spaces, which mining marked so heavily over such long periods of time, must be restored. The measures adopted have such a wide-ranging territorial impact that they represent the creation of new landscapes in line with strict environmental sustainability criteria. Reducing slopes and banks, securing and decontaminating soils, filling the large mining holes and planting native plant species and crops have been the main solutions applied in the old mining areas. The black colour of the mines has been replaced by a new green colour in line with the natural environment, in a relatively recent and constant process that some authors relate to the concept of regenerative development, different but linked to the more traditional sustainable development. The analysis conducted in this research focuses on several Spanish cases that are highly representative, both nationally and internationally, of what the changes undertaken after mines are abandoned entail