Studies on the reclamation and rehabilitation of the surface mining areas of the region "Şile-Avcıkoru"

Even though the minerals have an important portion in the unreplacable natural resources inour country, in the areas where mining is done distortions occur in the natural landscape dueto the usage of technologies unadaptable to the environment, in the production andconsumption stages of mining activity. The rehabilitation for the distorted, destructed areas asa result of industrial usage through natural restoration and the increase of the biologicproduction capability to increase the inherent landscape quality necessitate that environmentalproblems like air, water, soil, noise and visual pollution, occurred again as a result of thedistortion of natural landscape and the economic and social conditions of the close communitybe improved. The legistlation and regulations in the world urge that the areas distorted as aresult of the mining activities be restored again when the mining operation is completed andthat the environment be protected, and such regulations are supported by the relative laws.Again, on a universal scale, the Environmental Impact evaluation is being prepared with thecooperation of many related institutions and the impacts to the environment are beingpredicted and the measures to be taken to offset the negative impact is being advised to thepublic and the authority. As for the case in our country, following the passing ofEnvironmental Impact Assesment Law (EIA) in the Parliament, the activities to restore thedistorted land as a result of mining activities have gained pace and importance. As most of themineral and energy resources are located in the forestry areas in our country, the miningactivities should be done in such manner as to minimize the negative impact to the naturallandscape.In the scope of this thesis, the rehabilitation of the mining areas where the mining activity iscompleted and the restoration to its original landscape have been evaluated within the legaland managerial context having taken into account various examples of restoration works forthe distorted areas in the World and in Turkey. The restoration of the natural landscape as aresult of open-earth mining with respect to natural restoration and reclaim process have beenthoroughly researced in the case of ?Şile-Avcıkoru? project.Key words: Şile-Avcıkoru, reclamation, rehabilitation, natural restoration, restoration oflandscape, open-earth mining, surface mining.