Ecological rehabilitation and long term monitoring of post mining areas
TUC team met to work on the development of an audit catalogue to evaluate and certify ecological rehabilitation of post-mining areas. In particular, the frame of the audit catalogue, its chapters with their main subjects and the way of their ratings were presented and discussed.
The REECOL partnership takes efforts to keep the project on track. The project coordinator Poltegor-Instytut organized online meeting, on 05.11.2024. The discussion covered organizational issues, and activities and challenges within work packages WP4, WP5, WP6. Necessary plans and arragements were made.
On 25-27.09.2024 REECOL partners met in Chania, Greece to carry out a two-day meeting regarding the project progress. There were also partners attending online. TUC (School of Mineral Resources Engineering) was the host of the meeting.
In addition to presentations followed by disscussions, teams involved within particular work packages carried out further disscussions and made necessary decissions and arrangements. On the third day, visit in local Chordaki quarry and archeological museum took place.
REECOL team involved in WP 5: “Short and long term monitoring of ecosystem rehabilitation” continues work on collecting of soil samples. They met online to plan soil sampling campaign in Greece on the Ptolemais mining site at the end of September 2024, and discuss progress in soil sampling carried out in sites in Poland and France.
BRGM was the organizer and the following partners participated: PPC, TUC, Ineris, Valorhiz, GIG and PV.
REECOL research results were shared on the 11th international conference on sustainable development in the minerals industry SDIMI 2024. During ‘Mine Closure’ session, PPC and TUC gave a presentation of their paper entitled: “Certification and ecological reclamation of mined areas: evolving standards and practices for sustainable mining”.
SDIMI 2024 was held on 9-11 JULY 2024, in Torino, Italy (https:/sdimi2024.org/)
BRGM organized another online meeting with partners involved in WP 5: Short and long term monitoring of ecosystem rehabilitation. A deliverable to be elaborated and soil sampling campaign to be carried out in Greece in September this year were discussed. The following partners participated: Poltegor-Instytut, Ineris, Valorhiz, TUC, GIG, Premogovnik Velenje, and PPC.
REECOL ideas and research results were shared by TUC during geoENV2024 – the 15th International Conference on Geostatistics for Environmental Applications, held on 19-21 JUNE 2024 in Chania, Greece.
A poster covering one of issues we focus on in our project related to legislation and certification in ecological reclamation of postmining areas and a roll-up with main information about the project were exhibited.
The poster entitled ‘Advancing Sustainable Mining: The Role of Legislation and Certification in Ecological Reclamation‘ was developed by TUC and PPC.
The REECOL partners met online to work on work package 5 (WP5): Short and long term monitoring of ecosystem rehabilitation. They discussed:
1) the choice of indicators to be measured on the sites that will be either rehabilitated during the project or monitored to assess long-term rehabilitation effects on soil functions,
2) the soil sampling strategy and protocols,
3) organization of soil sampling campaigns; the initial plan is to start in autumn this year.
The meeting was organized by WP5 leader BRGM, and the following project partners participated: Poltegor-Instytut, GIG, Ineris, VALORHIS, TUC, Premogovnik Velenje, PPC.
Two REECOL teams: from Instytut Techniki Górniczej KOMAG and from Poltegor-Instytut visited Konin Brown Coal Mine.
KOMAG team carried out drone flights to collect data for calculation of NDVI. NDVI, i.e. normalized differential vegetation index – is used to determine the state of plants’ health. Another drone flights over the same area and data collections will be carried out after implementation of REECOL solutions, there.
Poltegor team collected samples of soil that will be tested in the Institute’s laboratories.
Faculty of Environment at the University of Jan Evangelista in Ústí nad Labem is another university with which VUHU shared the REECOL project ideas.
