Quarries: From Abandoned to Renewed Places

Abstract

Numerous industrial pits are discarded after their exploitation in every part of the world. Humanity both transforms the original morphology of the landscape, due to industrial activity in the territory, and, at the same time, rejects this "new" situation. This is to the detriment of the landscape, which is witness to this transfiguration, degradation, and abandonment. What is the future of these impersonal and empty areas? In this article, we present a general survey concerning the notion of quarry reuse to highlight the importance of this current and common problem. Our work approached the topic through a combination of the main concepts and a description of selected cases of study of quarry reconversions, sensitive to the environmental issues, climate changes, and sustainability. According to this premise, the research also provides an innovative matrix of schemes to classify the existing fundamental methods of recovery. For this effect, the investigation was proposed to be an instrument to improve the knowledge in the scientific and theoretical sectors, flanking the practical understanding, which has already started to move in this direction of reconversion, as the paper shows.

Successive processes at quarry waste dumps of various ages

“…The findings from this study are consistent with many quarry studies in different environments and geographical areas, which have shown that deserted quarries can improve biodiversity by providing refuge for plant and animal species (Talento et al 2020). The diversity of landforms created by mining offers a variety of ecological niches suitable for many plant and animal species, including those of high cultural value (Turnbull et al 2016).…”

“…In this way, abandoned quarries can be considered as tools to create multiple potential niches for different groups of organisms (Talento et al 2020). According to Spohn (2015), who studied the microbiological status of various quarries, the rate of soil respiration per unit of microbial biomass decreases as the period of excessive growth increases.…”

“…Sites such as quarries or mine dumps exist as an inevitable consequence of mining for industry, and therefore represent a growing component of many landscapes and areas. The traditionally negative attitudes of environ-mentalists towards these sites are rapidly evolving as it becomes clear that in industrialised and intensively cultivated areas, they are invaluable refuges for rare organisms (Talento et al 2020). Quarries generally contain periodically disturbed, early successional surfaces and are very heterogeneous with extreme abiotic conditions and Folia Forestalia Polonica, Series A -Forestry, 2021, Vol.…”

The Reuse of Waste Heaps from Extraction Sites: An Architectural Methodology

“…Being an interdisciplinary topic, the reuse of industrial waste heaps connects many disciplines at the same time. For this reason, the first methodological step was inserting the reuse theme inside a broad disciplinary context, primarily investigating the landscape sector (with a focus on the landscape of abandonment) [2] and the rehabilitation procedures of quarries [3]. The succeeding develops the proposed methodology, starting from the analysis of the Portuguese case of study and the material identification of the area on the territorial maps, linking the mounds of remain with their quarries.…”

“…The answer consists in establishing selection criteria creating a waste catalogue with different types of information. The investigation, having already formulated a criteria list for the selection of quarries [3], pays attention to the elaboration of criteria exclusively related to the waste piles. Eventual principles could be associated with those described in the following table (Table 3).…”