Lignite mining and its after-effects on the central German landscape

Lignite mining, which has been pursued in Central Germany for 150 years, has left deep scars on the landscape on an area of over 600 km2. The open-cast mines set up to extract lignite, along with the dumps and pits arising during the course of mining activities, have resulted in a completely new landscape, the external appearance and abiotic factors of which differ from the developed, cultivated landscape outside the mining areas. Dumps and slope faces are reclaimed on the basis of specific approaches, while pits are flooded to create strip mine lakes. Soil and water have developed in conformity with their own natural laws, knowledge of which is indispensable for recultivation. The development of new post-mining landscapes above all chiefly determined by ecological standards. 16 refs