What is it about?
Strategic landscape planning requires spatially explicit methods for assessing peri-urban mining landscapes. This study develops a multi-scale geospatial framework to assess 1284 mining ponds in Hungary through land-cover patterns, spectral indicators, ring-zone analysis and mining-pond spatial linkage patterns. The study shifts assessment from individual pond units to spatially grouped mining-pond complexes and distinguishes water surface expansion from changes in terrestrial vegetation, wetlands, and reedbeds. A detailed case study of the Délegyháza gravel mining-pond system illustrates how recreational use, shoreline transformation and suburbanization pressure are spatially associated with landscape changes.
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Why is it important?
Differentiated buffer zoning, mining-pond-complex-level planning and post-mining landscape monitoring can support the integration of mining ponds into blue-green infrastructure networks and EU Nature restoration objectives.
Perspectives
Mining ponds frequently occur in spatially grouped mining-pond complexes with distinct zonal structures. Shoreline zones show higher vegetation regeneration potential, while outer ring zones are more strongly affected by agricultural, urban and infrastructural pressures.
Dr. Carlos J. L. Balsas, FHEA, AICP
Ulster University Belfast
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Strategic Landscape Planning for Mining-Pond Landscapes as Blue-Green Infrastructure, Land, October 2026, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/land15101925.
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