Evaluating mining landscape: A step forward

Land rehabilitation constitutes an integral part of surface mining design aiming at returning the mined-out area to its former suitability to accept new land uses. The effectiveness of alternative rehabilitation plans depends on many parameters, the majority of which can be quantified in physical terms. One of the most difficult issues to deal with, however, is still the impact on the landscape during the operation and the improvement achieved after rehabilitation of the mine site. Towards this direction, the paper presents, through an illustrative example, a new method for the quantitative evaluation of the impacts on the landscape. This method, named LETOPID, focuses on the measurement of two main parameters: (i) the alteration of topographic relief and (ii) the sensitivity of observation conditions, both making use of GIS tools. The arithmetic values produced for each of the above parameters facilitates the discrimination of seemingly similar alternative design and rehabilitation plans.