Research and Development Centre for Post-Mining Areas

Post-mining landscape Senftenberger See Source: BGR

Mining activities are associated with long-term environmental impacts that extend far beyond the period of active mining. To support the areas affected by the lignite phase out, BGR, as a federal institute accountable to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK), is establishing the Research and Development Centre for Post-Mining Areas (FEZB) in Lusatia, seated in Cottbus.

To be able to plan and implement rehabilitation measures in the best possible way, adapted monitoring, investigation and forecasting techniques will be established for the real-time observation of processes and changes plus the reliable prognoses of future developments. The scientific review and analysis of existing rehabilitation methods will form the base for research on and development of new remediation concepts.

We will consider socio-economic differences, economic viability and the methods’ robustness under different environmental conditions to evaluate the applicability of those concepts in mining regions worldwide.

The research focuses on groundwater and soil in the field of remediation mining, geotechnologies and environmental monitoring and includes the following main topics:

• Hydrogeochemical changes in groundwater and soil
• Development of adapted monitoring and forecasting tools
• Assessment of long-term impacts
• Design of new landscapes
• Long-term data management
• (Inter)national networking and regional links

The developed knowledge serves to advise politics, economy and society and is the base for further development of mining regions.