Introduction

Abstract

Mining has accompanied man since the dawn of history, but it has made a significant mark on the landscape in only the last 250 years. In areas of intense mining, the movement of rock and soil masses is reflected in the denudation balance. The application of different calculation methods found that anthropogenic denudation is at least several times greater than natural denudation in many areas. Man is therefore an important geomorphological and landscape shaping factor. The impact of mining on the relief may be direct and indirect; it includes the creation of anthropogenic landforms, morphometric changes in the characteristics of the pre-mining relief, and changes in the course of geomorphological processes. This chapter focuses on the presentation of the conditions and the manner of emergence for continuous and discontinuous deformations in areas of underground mining. Model examples of mining and post-mining landscapes come from the Upper Silesian Coal Basin located in southern Poland. It is one of the oldest and largest mining areas in Europe. Based on an analysis of the natural environment features, the study area was divided into three zones—Carboniferous, Triassic and Miocene—which differ in geological structure, hydrogeological conditions, mineral resources, and the consequent degree of mining anthropopressure. Source materials are characterized and two methods of calculating anthropogenic denudation are presented—one based on the output of raw materials and the other based on morphometric analysis.