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MINE TAILINGS-BASED TECHNOSOLS FOR THE GREEN INFRASTRUCTURES SECTOR
Abstract
The European mining industry is an active sector. Mining operations disturb large volumes of land and produce huge quantities of waste. The tailings dams of the mining industry occupy large areas representing a huge cost in terms of operation/maintenance, health, safety, environment and economy. This paper is an overview of the possible sustainable waste management strategies that are targeted on the reuse of residues as secondary resources. Therefore, it is focused on restoring mine tailings as inert materials to be used as technosols in the green infrastructures sector (e.g., green roofs, urban green spaces). Technosols are man-made soils, intentionally ?constructed? or modified to meet specific needs like waste management and storage, support of industrial activities, infrastructures foundations, or green infrastructures. Technosols play an important role in a wide variety of ecosystems, being essential for designing sustainable rehabilitation techniques, city planning, and land use management. To make advantage of the land in former mining areas and speed up their ecological restoration, some studies proposed the increase of nutrients in affected soils through amendments such as compost, biochar, different organic wastes or undegraded soils. This review aims i) to investigate the efficiency of organic amendments in increasing the resilience of former mining sites and ii) to provide insight in functional indicators that can be used to assess the ecological compatibility of reconstructed technosols.
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References13
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