ORIGINAL ARTICLE The analysis of the existing terminology related to a post-mining land use: a proposal for new classification Urszula Kaz ´mierczak 1 • Marek W. Lorenc 2 • Pawel Strzalkowski 1 Received: 11 July 2016 / Accepted: 26 September 2017 / Published online: 14 October 2017 Ó The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication Abstract The article attempts to classify and standardize the terminology used in the literature related to a post- mining land use. The following terms were discussed: restoration, reclamation, rehabilitation, land development and revitalization as well as their explicitness enabling one to understand the essence of a certain process properly. On the basis of the existing methods of post-mining areas development found in the literature on the subject, certain inaccuracies related to the terminology of ways of recla- mation and methods of development were shown. This situation enables one to offer a new, developed and flexible classification of ways of reclamation including all the possible forms of post-mining land use. This classification considers methods of reclamation and restoration of utility value to post-mining areas on the basis of 6 general (ngen) and 23 specific ways (nspec), which terminology is unambiguous and leaves no space for doubts as to the interpretation. The essence of the offered classification is a possibility of joining general and specific ways into semantic combinations excluding possible inaccuracies in understanding. A possible form of notation of general and specific ways is as follows: \ general.specific [ , \ gen- eral.specific,specific [ and, possibly, \ general ? general. specific ? specific [ . This kind of approach enables one to consider each place individually, step out of the box and increase a number of semantic combinations from number n gen to number n gen *n spec . The offered classification may also be successfully used in determining ways of rehabil- itation, revitalization or land development. Keywords Restoration Á Rehabilitation Á Reclamation Á Land development Á Post-mining areas Á Rock mining Introduction After mining activities cease, the areas are considerably altered in comparison with their original state which, in many cases, is considered degradation or at least defor- mation of the environment. However, a newly created form may constitute a landscape diversion with a positive, intriguing or even inspiring impact on our senses (Bac- zyn ´ska et al. 2017). In this case, the above-mentioned negative associations cannot be applied. It can also be noted that in some cases there is a natural self-dealing effect with the resulting anthropogenic form, giving very good and satisfactory result. In other cases, human inter- ference seems to be helpful or simply necessary; still, this activity should be applied in accordance with the previ- ously accepted principles. It seems that these principles should take three basic aspects into consideration. One of those are the existing natural conditions or terrain config- uration, state of vegetation, presence of water bodies or watercourses and, in this context, the form and shape of the existing anthropogenic land transformation (e.g. excava- tion). The second aspect should be related to the existing objective conditions of the area, influencing the choice and application of the appropriate way of its development in the future. The third aspect means expectations and possible suggestions of local authorities and population who have their own adequately justified preferences and priorities concerning the future of this place. & Urszula Kaz ´mierczak urszula.kazmierczak@pwr.edu.pl 1 Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, ul. Wybrze _ ze Wyspian ´skiego 27, 50-370 Wroclaw, Poland 2 Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, ul. Grunwaldzka 55, 50-357 Wroclaw, Poland 123 Environ Earth Sci (2017) 76:693 DOI 10.1007/s12665-017-6997-7