A Model to Evaluate the Flooding Opportunity and Sustainable Use of Former Open-Pits

Abstract

As a result of open-pit mining exploitations, impressive size gaps occur in the landscape. Their flooding leads to the occurrence of so-called open-pit lakes and represents an interesting way to reclaim and use sustainably the degraded land. In the literature, there are numerous plans, strategies, and guidelines for mine closure and open-pit recovery, but these are usually developed at the regional or national level and offer general suggestions, which must be evaluated and approached case-by-case. Because there is still no way to evaluate the opportunity of flooding the open-pits, a methodology for assessing this opportunity was developed to identify the open-pits that are suitable for flooding, this being the main objective of the paper. The paper is novel because of the multicriteria evaluation of open-pits and their remaining gaps, the logical succession of the criteria, and the proposed concept, methods, models, and equations that allow a complex assessment of the flooding opportunity. The methodology also aims to ensure maximum safety conditions in the former mining perimeter, the socio-economic and cultural requirements of local communities, the harmonization of the land in accordance with adjacent ecosystems, and the sustainable development of the region.