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Natural and build environment and mining activities - land uses for abandoned quarries

Chinou Panagiota

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Summary

The management of the environmental footprint of the quarrying, as well as, the restoration of the former or abandoned quarries is crucial. Climate change is a major issue which in combination with resource management, the economic and material and technological imperatives of modern times sets new frameworks for research and applications. The need for aggregates is increasing, the pressure of reconstruction combined with a vague legal framework result in the creation of many inactive quarries, with the character of degraded areas and then industrial landscapes. Mining always affects the environment and natural resources. Active and sustainable management of these ecosystems and natural resources before, during and after mining will help to avoid the negative effects of mining.No heavy industry developed in Greece but small production cores operated during the 1970s and 1980s where they began to have a declining trend until their operation ceased. This pause created abandoned spaces and empty landscapes within the urban fabric. Towards the end of the 1990s, an international recovery took place in the industry and in the mining sector, with the result that the mining activity played a leading role in the world market. Today in Greece the production of aggregates meets the needs of the country and at the same time the country is a major producer of basic industrial minerals with the result that exportable raw and processed mining materials account for 65% of its sales.The closure of many industrial units in the city created spatial gaps. These urban gaps can be transformed into landscapes of urban fabric upgrading. Thus, former quarries have been restored in areas with new uses, often innovative, utilizing the special elements of the former quarry and its environment. Many quarries changed their use and physiognomy, acquiring a new status. A typical example is former quarries in the Attica basin that have been restored as open theaters and parks.In this study, the restoration of the LAHOR quarry in Chordaki, at the area of Akrotiri-Chania, is proposed. A proposal is planned in which helical metal ramps are created for pedestrians and cyclists, which are stapled with the industrial physiognomy of the area, as the quarry facilities will continue to exist after its completion, such as buildings and crushers. These ramps lead to the first step of the quarry where it will be the open workshop for students at the Technical University of Crete. In addition, their location is crucial, because they divide the quarry area into two sections, the industrial section and the local section. The wonderful view through them is exploitable, while they end up near the exhibition space, a building built into the rock, which emphasizes the quarry memory of the area, and gives a supra-local character to the former quarry, as it will be addressed to all researchers, students, government, educational institutions interested in mineral resources subjects. Finally a photovoltaic park will be created in the south-western part of the studied area and in the south-eastern part a free type square, without intense configurations, in which there is a remarkable opening of sea and mountain views.

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