This presentation will initially cover the restructuring process of the mining industry in former East Germany after German reunification. It will then summarize the remaining work to be performed by the public sector for mining operations to be shut down. An explanation will follow of the many technical and ecological challenges with re-dedication to new use of former mining areas of the decommissioned companies in the lignite industry. The presentation will then elaborate on the challenges encountered in elimination of man-made disturbances to the groundwater balance and to the system of surface bodies of water made by the mining industry of former East Germany. Remediation of around 100,000 hectares of mining area, and restoration of an extensively self-regulating water balance over a surface area of approx. 390,000 hectares, involved the largest single landscape construction site in Europe. In addition to representation of the results and diverse experience achieved over the past 20 years, a description will also follow of our new challenges and of an outlook on our remaining tasks. This presentation will end with a presentation of the legal framework, the organizational implementation, the financing, as well as aspects of the job-creation policy arising from lignite-industry remediation.
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