Recultivation of post-mining disturbed land: Review of content and comparative law and feasibility study

Abstract

The article considers the concept of the circular economy as an important tool for achieving sustainable development, which relates to the preservation of renewable resources' mass through the renewal of withdrawn resources and the restoration of disturbed ones. It is directly linked to remedial land treatment in post-mining disturbed land. However, after numerous studies, the conceptual apparatus of recultivation remains unspecified. Moreover, there is a gap regarding the trends of evolutionary changes in studies of legislation and feasibility on the subject of recultivation. Employing comparative law as a tool, the aim of the study is to develop a consistent approach based on circular economy by establishing the stages of legal support for recultivation and identifying the content of all these stages regarding economic efficiency. Currently, the environmental priorities of the economy are triggering the usage of the ecosystem approach for assessing the ecological result of recultivation. Therefore, the core of the paper is the development of a consistent circular economy approach by (1) clarifying the concept of recultivation, (2) identifying the stages of the development of a legal framework for recultivation and (3) revealing evolutionary changes in feasibility studies on recultivation. The authors prove that recultivation should be considered from the perspective of geoaesthetics, which implies a harmonious incorporation of the recultivated landscape into the environment.