CONCLUSION

When talking about the quality of life of residents in post-mining communities, there is a paradoxical phenomenon. The prosperity of an area will be reflected in the quality of life of its inhabitants. But while the mining industry was booming, the miners led a hard life. Many years later, when the industry began to decline, they still led a far less than satisfactory life. The development of the mining industry was perhaps in itself an industry of significant depletion, not only of non-renewable resources but also of this group of miners. Rehabilitation of the mining sites has another layer of meaning, not only the ecological implications.

In many post-industrial cities, when faced with “disturbed sites”, it is necessary for the human to recognize that these sites can never be brought back to the original state. What human beings eagerly seek is only a sustainable solution. So, understanding the concept of “sustainability” and “remediation” determines the future development of this place.

Sustainable design is generally understood by three principles- ecological health, social justice, and economic prosperity. However, from what Meyer said, aesthetic values are also worthy of being considered in this agenda.

But what is the aesthetic value of “disturbed sites”? It contains various layers. Firstly, those sites, although they show a damaged state, when acknowledging them as a point on a timeline, the negative comments will disappear. The current can be understood as a result of the past, but it can also be known as the start of the future. After the sites present for themselves, the intervention from human activities is also recorded. The formation of the sites fuses natural power and the human act. Remediation should be established on acknowledging them as a whole. As Tim said, “to perceive the landscape is, therefore, to carry out an act of remembrance, and remembering is not so much a matter of calling up an internal image, stored in mind, as of engaging perceptually with an environment that is itself pregnant with the past.”

Secondly, human site-based expressions can also be a part of the aesthetic value. These expressions are not limited to one fixed form but can take many forms. The landscape can be present in these expressions as a substrate or as a medium. All these expressions can be called art. The value or superiority of art exists only in the art itself, which is closely linked to the sites but has nothing to do with the creators’ identity.

For now, “Remediation “almost means to reverse the damage to the environment, but in the future, it might become a new context following the “Post-industrial “. When that time comes, the meaning of “Remediation” may also change, involving more human aspects.

Remediation

Struggling identities

Post-industrial society faces a transition from manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy. In the post-industrial context, the transition is not only showed on the economic level; it shows on almost every aspect.

The transformation of economic patterns implies a transition in these regions’ character, which is closely linked to human behaviour.

The identities of the people living in these mining communities have changed many times over the past decades, but these changes have been incomplete. The men in the families went out to work and changed from being farmers to miners, from rural to city residents. But the wife and children remain farmers. Due to policy restrictions, the status of rural and urban cannot be changed at will. When family members had the opportunity to live in the city, they gave up their rural households and farmland but retained their farming habits. They live near the mines, on the fringes of the city, and have no access to own one piece of farming land. There are also miners who, when they are about to retire, can exchange both their jobs and their urban status with their offspring who live in the countryside (and whose status remains that of a farmer). They, in turn, had to return to the rural area themselves, allowing their offspring to continue working in the mines.

Their identity is constantly changing, never really having a fixed identity which is difficult for many people. In the future, the change of identity will continue in the mines, these people may be offered new jobs, and they will again face a new identity.

They feel anxious about their future and have doubts about who they were and who they are now. As miners, they have been hailed as heroes of the city but have never been treated appropriately. And it is not just the identity that accompanies these feelings of anxiety, but also the individual economic conditions. Rehabilitation of the mines is not only ecological. The benefits proposed to bring to the community are not just a natural environmental improvement either.

A mine pit can be transformed into a natural reserve, a dump into farmland or an experimental site, a factory into a destination. They can all be given a more permanent identity in the future. But it is not easy to provide these inhabitants with a fixed identity. The struggle for identity will continue and the quality of life of the inhabitants will be improved to alleviate this anxiety.