The analysis of the existing terminology related to a post-mining land use: a proposal for new classification

The article attempts to classify and standardize the terminology used in the literature related to a post-mining land use. The following terms were discussed: restoration, reclamation, rehabilitation, land development and revitalization as well as their explicitness enabling one to understand the essence of a certain process properly. On the basis of the existing methods of post-mining areas development found in the literature on the subject, certain inaccuracies related to the terminology of ways of reclamation and methods of development were shown. This situation enables one to offer a new, developed and flexible classification of ways of reclamation including all the possible forms of post-mining land use. This classification considers methods of reclamation and restoration of utility value to post-mining areas on the basis of 6 general (ngen) and 23 specific ways (nspec), which terminology is unambiguous and leaves no space for doubts as to the interpretation. The essence of the offered classification is a possibility of joining general and specific ways into semantic combinations excluding possible inaccuracies in understanding. A possible form of notation of general and specific ways is as follows: < general. specific >, < general. specific, specific > and, possibly, < general + general. specific + specific >. This kind of approach enables one to consider each place individually, step out of the box and increase a number of semantic combinations from number n(gen) to number n(gen)*n(spec). The offered classification may also be successfully used in determining ways of rehabilitation, revitalization or land development.