Perspectives of lignite post-mining landscapes under changing environmental conditions: what can we learn from a comparison between the Rhenish and Lusatian region in Germany?

Gerwin et al. Environmental Sciences Europe https://doi.org/10.1186/s12302-023-00738-z (2023) 35:36 Environmental Sciences Europe Open Access RESEARCH Perspectives of lignite post‑mining landscapes under changing environmental conditions: what can we learn from a comparison between the Rhenish and Lusatian region in Germany? Werner Gerwin1 , Thomas Raab2 , Klaus Birkhofer3 , Christoph Hinz4, Peter Letmathe5 , Michael Leuchner6 , Martina Roß‑Nickoll7 , Thomas Rüde8 , Katja Trachte9 , Frank Wätzold10    and Frank Lehmkuhl11*    Abstract Background The decision of the German federal government to cease lignite mining until 2038 or—if possible— already earlier until 2030, will cause manifold transition processes in the remaining lignite mining districts of Germany. The two largest districts are located in geographically opposite regions: The Rhineland in the western part and Lusatia in the east of Germany. As particularly these two mining districts will experience severe changes in their socioeco‑ nomic as well environmental conditions, the federal government has adopted comprehensive economic support measures. However, the environmental changes will also cause altered ecosystem functions and services to be pro‑ vided by the future post-mining landscapes. Results In this paper, the two main lignite-producing regions of Germany are compared with regard to their natural and cultural settings. The economic situation and its history are reflected and differences are outlined. Part of the dis‑ parities in the cultural development can be explained by very different natural conditions, especially edaphic factors and climatic situation. Because of dissimilar geological settings, different mining technologies were developed and are in use in the two regions with distinct effects on the resulting post-mining landscapes. Conclusion The long-standing and manifold lignite mining activities have radically restructured the landscapes in Lusatia and the Rhineland. With the ongoing decline of the mining industry and its complete cessation, presumably within the next decade, both regions will alter their faces significantly. These changes offer both challenges but also opportunities with respect to the post-mining landscapes and their ecosystem services they are going to provide. The prerequisites for a positive socioeconomic development and for sustainable land-use concepts that also consider ecological aspects are different for both regions. However, or especially because of these differences, the knowledge exchange and experience transfer between both mining regions are pivotal for the success of this extensive transfor‑ mation process. Keywords Lignite mining, Ecosystem services, Post-mining landscapes, Transformation processes *Correspondence: Frank Lehmkuhl Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Gerwin et al. Environmental Sciences Europe (2023) 35:36 Introduction Even if the recent geopolitical situation in Europe raises many questions with regard to future energy supply, the German federal government still adheres to its political goal to cease lignite mining until 2038 or—if possible— already earlier until 2030. Associated with this political decision, a massive socioeconomic structural change will occur in Germany’s two largest lignite mining districts. The closure of mines offers numerous opportunities, but also challenges, to overcome the severe ecological disturbances caused by long-lasting and large-scaled mining operations. Solutions for these challenges are manifold and touch several scientific disciplines. Effects and effectiveness of reclamation or restoration measures have to be verified. Traditionally, environmental economics often emphasized the source function (source of raw materials) and the sink function (absorption of pollutants) of the natural environment. Today, this view is widely seen as outdated. For the last 15 years, much more emphasis has been placed on the provision of ecosystem services, and assessing ecosystem services might be a suitable interdisciplinary approach to validate the success of measures related to the ongoing structural change in both regions, which basically includes the creation of sustainable and multifunctional post-mining landscapes. The concept of ecosystem services comprises supporting, providing, regulating, and cultural services supplied Page 2 of 24 by ecosystems to the benefits of humans and other species [1] (Fig. 1). Services in these categories are provided through markets (e.g., food) and, more often, without organized markets (e.g., climate regulation). In particular, these services are, in the absence of adequate pricing, often neglected in political and economic decision processes. This way of operating has not only resulted in severe overexploitation of the natural environment, overdevelopment of land, resource scarcity, worsening global environmental problems such as climate change and a sharp decline in biodiversity, but also negatively affects the livelihood opportunities of future generations. Spatial transformation processes, in particular, offer the opportunity to rethink patterns of land use and to better integrate ecosystem services methodically into decisionmaking processes [2]. In principle, economic research can contribute to make better decisions in two ways: (1) The economic valuation of ecosystem services, i.e., their assessment in monetary terms, can help to give those ecosystem services equal consideration in policy processes, whose value is usually not considered in markets, and, as a consequence, are often not given adequate attention and equal consideration in policy processes. (2) In case certain policy targets exist with respect to ecosystem services, e.g., the provision of a certain Fig. 1 Ecosystem services (with selected examples for each category) as connectors between vivid ecosystems and human well-being Gerwin et al. Environmental Sciences Europe (2023) 35:36 level of water supply, economics can help identifying the cost-effective way to achieve that level. Cost-effectiveness is here reac (...truncated)