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PoMHAZ

Post-Mining Multi-Hazards evaluation for land-planning

PoMHAZ - Spatial Decision Support System for Post-Mining Hazards

Open-source tool, offers advanced capabilities to inform decision-making and optimize resource allocation, helping build more resilient communities through its rich database combined with a practical, easy-to-use interface.

Post-Mining Multi-HAzard Assessment

POMHAZ focuses on improving the hazard assessment and the risk management of abandoned coalmines. The main objective is to improve the methodological knowledge for practical realization of multihazards analyses, at the scale of a mining basin, in correlation with the main post-mining hazards.

To achieve this objective, the hazards of the abandoned coalmines, their interactions, and consequences on the urban environment will be identified and analysed based on multi-criteria approaches and Decision Support System.

This Project has received funding from the Research Fund for Coal and Steel under Grant Agreement No 101057326.

Introductory project video

Former mining sites are often exposed to different types of hazards, natural or technological hazards, and interact with post-mining hazards. The European PoMHaz project aims to develop a method that integrates hazard interactions for land use and risk management.

Documentation and General Descriptions

Risk

Background

Hazard

Descriptions and Assessment

GIS Tool

Information

Study Cases

Description

sDSS

Documentation

Supporting Videos

Videos

Ruhr Area - Germany

The Ruhr area was the most dominant coal mining region in Germany. The entire Ruhr area covers more than 4.000 km². More than 5 Mio. inhabitants are living in this region. In order to dewater the overlying strata and coal seams, the miners erected dewatering adits and tunnels into the slopes of the adjacent hills. More than 100 of these tunnels exist, and some of these galleries are still dewatering even today. These old galleries are sometimes several kilometers long and spread over a larger area.

These galleries also pose another risk to the inhabitants and infrastructure of that area because the galleries can be instable and could be prone to collapse.

Western Macedonia Lignite Centre and Megalopolis Lignite Centre - Greece

Western Macedonia Lignite Centre and Megalopolis Lignite Centre are complex open surface mines. These open surface lignite mines are equipped with bucket wheel excavators, conveyors and spreaders. The mines are operating for 20 years; their remaining life is approx. 10 years and they feed with lignite a 4.438 MW Total installed capacity. The total area of mining activity exceeds 30 km2. The lignite deposits are in a multiple-layered form and the lignite seams are horizontally placed. At a distance of 2 km NE, there is a village with 100 inhabitants. A river with NE-SW direction is located across the mine. This river has partially relocated for exploitation needs.

Before the beginning of mining activity, the land use was mainly agricultural and forestry. The outside waste dump area is located 1.5 km NW from the mine while dumping activities are not anymore performed. Nowadays, the waste material from the exploitation processes is transported to an inside dumping area. Following the mine closure, a lake is planned to fill the existing area voids.

Wałbrzych and Piekary Śląskie- Poland

Wałbrzych is located in Lower Silesian Wałbrzych and is a good example of a postmining area. Three hazards affect the area: land subsidence causing linear discontinuous deformations of the surface, gas migration during the procedure of mines flooding and water hazard.

The city Piekary Śląskie is an excellent example of a site where the effects of old and contemporary mining are observed. The city of Piekary Śląskie is located in the center of the area with a large mining tradition. In the last 100 years, three mines were extracting hard coal within the borders of the city. Currently, only one mine is operating, which will be closed down during 2020.

Peypin - France

Peypin is a town is located 21 km from Marseille and 22 km from Aix-en-Provence France, at an altitude of 307 m and its area is 13.35 km2. The population of the municipality is 5600 inhabitants. A municipality has a relatively high density. The town is crossed by the A52 motorway, and several departmental roads (D7, D8, and D46A). There is an industrial activity zone with 73 companies. The municipality of Peypin is in the lignitiferous basin of Provence.

It was part of the region's historical lignite mining industry. The 'Armand' shafts in Peypin were established in 1887 and 1890 to exploit local lignite deposits within the 'Peypin / Saint-Savournin South' concession. These shafts facilitated coal extraction and ventilation. Mining operations ceased in 1932, briefly resumed in 1940, and concluded permanently in 1954. In the mid-20th century, the Provence mining basin, which included Peypin, was a significant coal-producing area. By 1948, the region employed approximately 6,505 miners, accounting for about 20% of the local population, with an annual production of 970,000 tons, ranking third nationally. However, by 1986, the number of miners had dwindled to 894, and the last mine in the area closed in 2003. Today, remnants of Peypin's mining heritage, such as the small railway that connected the mines to the main network, serve as historical markers of the town's industrial past