Beyond Closure: Systems-Based Approaches to Long-Term Geological and Ecological Management of Abandoned Mines

Authors

  • Congnan Gu

    Tianjin Geological Research and Marine Geology Center, Tianjin 300170, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i7.13356
Received: 15 March 2026 | Revised: 20 May 2026 | Accepted: 25 May 2026 | Published Online: 13 July 2026

Abstract

Abandoned mines are timeless legacy landscapes in which the interactions of geological instability, hydrogeochemical contamination, ecological degradation, and government failure collide over a long period of time. Traditional mine closure models have enhanced post-operational rehabilitation, but in most cases, they still focus on endpoint compliance and are limited in the case of abandoned/orphaned mines, which grow decades after mining stops. It is a review that can shift towards a systems-based approach to the problem, in which the abandoned mines are not seen as individual technical threats, but as complex socio-ecological-geological systems. It is a synthesis of the long-term legacies of landform instability, subsidence, acid and metalliferous drainage, groundwater rebound, soil degradation, habitat fragmentation, and constrained ecological succession, and gives greater focus to the feedbacks between these processes. The review also discusses conceptual assumptions underlying stewardship-oriented management: systems thinking, resilience, vulnerability, adaptive capacity, and risk-based decision models. It then weighs the major long-term management approaches and tools and includes the site characterization, monitoring networks, remote sensing, predictive modeling, multi-criteria decision support, and threshold-based early warning systems. Based on this synthesis, the article suggests the integrated pathways of management, which integrate the source control, passive and active treatment, geomorphic design, restoration of the ecological, and active climate adjustment, and stable governance mechanisms. The main thesis is that the management of abandoned mines needs a shift in the approach towards closure to the approach towards stewardship that is long-term, adaptive, and interdisciplinary. This is a more realistic approach to mitigating the risks of legacies and is used to steer the resilient post-mining landscape futures.

Keywords:

Abandoned Mines; Long-Term Stewardship; Socio-Ecological-Geological Systems; Mine Legacy Risk; Adaptive Management

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Gu, C. (2026). Beyond Closure: Systems-Based Approaches to Long-Term Geological and Ecological Management of Abandoned Mines. Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences, 8(7), 102–139. https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i7.13356

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Vol. 8 , Iss. 7 (July 2026): In Progress

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Copyright © 2026 Congnan Gu

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This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.

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