Vlad MĂCICĂŞAN¹, Liviu MUNTEAN¹, Gheorghe ROŞIAN¹, Cristian MALOȘ¹, Radu MIHĂIESCU¹ & Nicolae BACIU^1
1Babeş-Bolyai University, Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, 30 Fântânele Street, 400294,
Cluj-Napoca, Romania; e-mail: vlad.macicasan@ubbcluj.ro

AN INTEGRATED GEOMORPHOLOGICAL APPROACH FOR QUARRY REHABILITATION (AGHIREȘ MINING AREA, ROMANIA)

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In Aghireș area, the environmental effects induced by mining need to be mitigated through appropriate rehabilitation planning. In this paper, by using an integrated geomorphological approach, two rehabilitation alternatives are proposed. The entire process is supported by USLE tool, physicochemical testing of soil and water, and GIS analysis. The final results should be separately addressed depending onthe targeted component. Regarding the soil, the erosion risk indicated a maximum erosion rate of 10.94tons/ha/year, and an average of 0.11 tons, on a background terrain stability of five different classes. Thecorrelations suggest that the associated geomorphological processes are directly related to the uncoveredland surfaces and the presence of mine dumps, on which the soils are in emerging state. By analyzing thenewly formed soils it has been observed that several parameters (e.g. granulometry, plasticity and humuscontent), differ very much between the rehabilitated and the non-rehabilitated areas, suggesting differentpedogenesis conditions. In addition to soils, the mining lakes have also been investigated, as support forrehabilitation. From the morphometric features it has been observed that the lakes surfaces vary quitesignificant during the year, depending on the recorded annual precipitation. It is also worth mentioningthat three mining lakes have an extremely acidic water environment (with pH levels lower than 4.0),while the rest of the lakes have a neutral pH. Based on the obtained data, two possible environmentalrehabilitation alternatives are proposed, complying with the requirements of SLOSS concept.