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  • The scenic value of abandoned mining areas in Poland
    132-142
    Views:
    30

    Abandoned Polish mining areas are commonly heavily transformed so that they endanger no longer
    the environment. A disadvantage is that the newly created areas commonly contribute to the
    monotonous urban-industrial landscape, rather than providing additional value. This is partly due to
    legislation that hampers a more diversified management of abandoned mining areas as potentially
    valuable landforms. One of the legal barriers that restricts the possibilities of making these areas more
    attractive, regards the utilization of remaining exploitation holes (i.e. land depressions of at least 2 m
    deep, formed as a result of open-pit mining of energy, chemical, building or metallurgical resources)
    and waste heaps as important cultural and scenic elements. Such a new use of these old mininginduced phenomena is important if it is intended not only to involve the regional population in the
    process of exploring and exploiting the earth’s resources, but also to confront them with some
    negative consequences of these activities, including shaping the landscape in which these objects are
    situated. The current attitude towards a new architecture for abandoned mining areas should be
    reconsidered; particularly the present-day approach based on narrow specializations – for instance of
    experts in mineral exploitation, spatial planning or environmental protection – should be replaced by
    interdisciplinary action regarding shaping the landscape of abandoned mining areas.

  • Land use changes of the riparian landscape in Hungary between 1990 and 2018
    82-95
    Views:
    107

    The protection and the restoration of rivers is one of the most important challenges of our time, due to the impact of human activities. The aim of the research was to assess the land use changes in the Hungarian riparian landscape. Several landscape corridors of different (50-100-300-500 m) widths near rivers were analyzed since 1990, using the CORINE Land Cover database. Positive changes in the land use of riparian landscape can be seen: continuous increase in the case of forest areas; and slight decrease in the extent of agricultural land since 1990. Unfortunately, the extent of grasslands and other near-natural areas is reduced; and there has been a steady increase in built-up areas. Examining the changes in built-up areas in more detail, a big increase is shown by the extent of urban green areas. As a continuation of the research, an evaluation methodology is being developed to determine the restoration potential of urban rivers on study area level and on national level. The results presented in this paper on land use changes and land use conditions can be useful for the research about restoration potential at national level.