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Land rehabilitation
 
 
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Land rehabilitation is the process of returning the land in a given area to some degree of its former state, after some process (industry
Industry

An industry is the manufacturing of a Good or Service within a category. Although industry is a broad term for any kind of economic production, in economics and urban planning industry is a synonym for the secondary sector, which is a type of economic activity involved in the manufacturing of raw materials into goods and products....
, natural disaster
Natural disaster

A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard which affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, environmental or human losses....
s etc.) has resulted in its damage. Many project
Project

A project in business and science is a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim....
s and development
Subdivision (land)

Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known as a subdivision; if it is used for housing it is typically known as a housing subdivision or housing development, although some developers tend to call these areas community....
s will result in the land becoming degraded
Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife....
, for example mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
, farming and forestry
Forestry

Forestry is the art and science of managing forests, tree plantations, and related natural resources. Silviculture, a related science, involves the growing and tending of trees and forests....
.

While it is rarely possible to restore the land to its original condition, the rehabilitation process usually attempts to bring some degree of restoration.






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Land rehabilitation is the process of returning the land in a given area to some degree of its former state, after some process (industry
Industry

An industry is the manufacturing of a Good or Service within a category. Although industry is a broad term for any kind of economic production, in economics and urban planning industry is a synonym for the secondary sector, which is a type of economic activity involved in the manufacturing of raw materials into goods and products....
, natural disaster
Natural disaster

A natural disaster is the consequence of a natural hazard which affects human activities. Human vulnerability, exacerbated by the lack of planning or appropriate emergency management, leads to financial, environmental or human losses....
s etc.) has resulted in its damage. Many project
Project

A project in business and science is a collaborative enterprise, frequently involving research or design, that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim....
s and development
Subdivision (land)

Subdivision is the act of dividing land into pieces that are easier to sell or otherwise develop, usually via a plat. The former single piece as a whole is then known as a subdivision; if it is used for housing it is typically known as a housing subdivision or housing development, although some developers tend to call these areas community....
s will result in the land becoming degraded
Environmental degradation

Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife....
, for example mining
Mining

Mining is the extraction of value minerals or other geology materials from the earth, usually from an ore body, vein or seam. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, Sodium chloride and potash....
, farming and forestry
Forestry

Forestry is the art and science of managing forests, tree plantations, and related natural resources. Silviculture, a related science, involves the growing and tending of trees and forests....
.

While it is rarely possible to restore the land to its original condition, the rehabilitation process usually attempts to bring some degree of restoration. Modern methods have in many cases not only restored degraded land but actually improved it, depending on what criteria are used to measure 'improvement'.

Mine rehabilitation

Modern mine rehabilitation aims to minimize and mitigate the environmental effects of modern mining, which may in the case of open pit mining involve movement of significant volumes of rock. Rehabilitation management is an ongoing process, often resulting in open pit mines being backfilled.

After mining finishes, the mine area must undergo rehabilitation.
  • Waste dumps are contoured to flatten them out, to further stabilise them against erosion
    Erosion

    For morphological image processing operations, see Erosion 'For use of in dermatopathology, see Erosion Erosion is the removal of solids in the natural environment....
    .
  • If the ore contains sulfides it is usually covered with a layer of clay
    Clay

    Clay is a naturally occurring material composed primarily of fine-grained minerals, which show plasticity through a variable range of water content, and which can be hardened when dried and/or fired....
     to prevent access of rain
    Rain

    Rain is liquid precipitation . On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into droplet heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface....
     and oxygen
    Oxygen

    Oxygen no O2 produced; 2) O2 produced, but absorbed in oceans & seabed rock; 3) O2 starts to gas out of the oceans, but is absorbed by land surfaces and formation of ozone layer; 4-5) O2 sinks filled and the gas accumulates]]...
     from the air
    AIR

    Air is the part of Earth's atmosphere that humans breath and as such Air .Air may also refer to:...
    , which can oxidise the sulfides to produce sulfuric acid
    Sulfuric acid

    Sulfuric acid, hydrogen2sulfuroxygen4, is a strong mineral acid. It is soluble in water at all concentrations. Sulfuric acid has many applications, and is one of the top products of the chemical industry....
    .
  • Landfill
    Landfill

    File:Wysypisko.jpgFile:Landfill face.JPGFile:Landfill.jpg A landfill, also known as a dump , is a site for the disposal of waste materials by burial and is the oldest form of list of solid waste treatment technologies....
    s are covered with topsoil
    Topsoil

    Topsoil is the upper, outermost layer of soil, usually the top 2 to 8 inches. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biology soil activity occurs....
    , and vegetation
    Vegetation

    refers to the flora system of a specific region....
     is planted to help consolidate the material.
  • Dumps are usually fenced off to prevent livestock
    Livestock

    Livestock is the term used to refer to a domesticated animal intentionally reared in an agricultural setting to produce things such as food or fibre, or for its labour....
     denuding them of vegetation.
  • The open pit is then surrounded with a fence, to prevent access, and it generally eventually fills up with groundwater
    Groundwater

    Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil porosity spaces and in the fractures of lithologic formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water....
    .
  • Tailings
    Tailings

    Tailings are the materials left over after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the worthless fraction of an ore.Tailings represent external costs of mining....
     dam
    Dam

    A dam is a barrier that Reservoirs surface water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates, levees, and Dike are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions....
    s are left to evaporate, then covered with waste rock, clay if need be, and soil
    Soil

    Soil is the naturally occurring, unconsolidated or loose covering on the Earth's surface. Soil is composed of particles of broken rock that have been altered by chemical and environmental processes including weathering and erosion....
    , which is planted to stabilise it.


For underground mines, rehabilitation is not always a significant problem or cost. This is because of the higher grade of the ore
Ore

An ore is a type of Rock that contains minerals such as gemstones and metals that can be extracted through mining and refined for use. Samples of ore in the form of exceptionally beautiful crystals, exotic layering visible when sectioned or polished or metallic presentations such as large nuggets or crystalline formations of metals suc...
 and lower volumes of waste rock and tailings. In some situations, stopes are backfilled with concrete
Concrete

Concrete is a construction material composed of cement as well as other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, construction aggregate , water , and Chemistry admixtures....
 slurry
Slurry

A slurry is, in general, a thick suspension of solids in a liquid and may be:* A mixture of water and cement to form concrete* A mixture of water, thickening agent#weapon use, and oxidizers used as an water gel...
 using waste, so that minimal waste is left at surface.

The removal of plant
Physical

Physical can mean any of the following things below:* Any entity which are composed of matter and/or energy, as well as the physical property of those entities; and not merely items of thought or belief....
 and infrastructure
Infrastructure

Infrastructure can be defined as the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise , or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function....
 is not always part of a rehabilitation programme, as many old mine plants have cultural heritage
Cultural heritage

Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical Cultural artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations....
 and cultural value. Often in gold
Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and atomic number 79. It is a highly sought-after precious metal, having been used as money, as a store of value, in jewelry, in sculpture, and for ornamentation since the beginning of recorded history....
 mines, rehabilitation is performed by scavenger operations which treat the soil within the plant area for spilled gold using modified placer mining
Placer mining

Placer mining is the mining of Alluvium deposits for minerals. This may be done by Open pit mining or by various forms of tunneling into ancient riverbeds....
 gravity collection plants.

See also

  • Restoration ecology
    Restoration ecology

    Restoration ecology is the study of renewing a degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystem through active human intervention. Restoration ecology specifically refers to the scientific study that has evolved as recently as the 1980s....
  • Reforestation
    Reforestation

    Reforestation is the restocking of existing forests and woodlands which have been depleted, with native tree stock. The term reforestation can also refer to afforestation, the process of restoring and recreating areas of woodlands or forest that once existed but were deforestation or otherwise removed or destroyed at some point in the pas...
  • Land reclamation
    Land reclamation

    Land reclamation is either of two distinct practices. One involves creating new land from sea- or riverbeds, the other refers to restoring an area to a more natural state ....
  • Prairie restoration
    Prairie Restoration

    Prairie restoration is an environmentally friendly way to restore some of the prairie land that was lost to industry, farming and commerce. For example, the U.S....
  • Mine reclamation
    Mine reclamation

    Mine reclamation is the process of creating useful landscapes that meet a variety of goals, typically creating productive ecosystems from mined land....


External links

  • , provides free downloads of software and articles on land drainage.