Feasibility of changing the status of abandoned open-pit mines to tourism areas in order to create sustainable development in rural areas (a case study of the village of Dareh Zarshek - Taft region)

Dissertation for Master's Degree (M.A)

Trend: Tourism Planning

Dissertation abstract (including summary, objectives, implementation methods and results obtained):

Sustainable development is one of the key and widely used issues of the modern world. The tourism industry is not excluded from this category in direct connection with geography. Changing the use of abandoned mining sites (both open pit and underground) has been very important at the international level in recent decades, as many examples of this type can be found all over the world; While in our country, no significant action has been taken in this regard. In this thesis, an attempt has been made to examine the link between the triangle of tourism, mining and geography from a new perspective. Yazd province, with its special climate and rich mineral resources on the one hand, and the importance of implementing sustainable development and environmental considerations after mining on the other hand, has the potential to welcome more domestic and foreign tourists in the province. In this regard, using Expert Choice software and MADM (AHP) hierarchical analysis method, in order to implement sustainable tourism, it was tried to investigate the feasibility of changing the use of an abandoned open-pit mine located in the village of Dereh Zarshak (Taft region) to a tourist site, and the obtained result shows the superiority of the tourist site option compared to other options, and the economic and social criteria had the greatest impact in this weighting. It is hoped that this article will pave the way for the implementation of sustainable tourism in abandoned mine sites, which are scattered in our dear country of Iran.

1 Chapter 1 - General research plan

1-1 Introduction

Mine rehabilitation refers to a set of operations that prepares mining land for reuse. In surface mines, land pollution by peat and tailings dump sites, as well as the ever-increasing need for land for agriculture, livestock and housing, have forced mine owners to consider reconstruction operations from the initial stages of design and extraction, considering the social and economic conditions of the region, the climatic conditions and the capabilities of the mined lands (Monterroso: 1998: 442).

During the last two decades, the global prevalence of sustainable development has made the mining industry to consider About strategies that are more compatible and harmonious with the environment. Considering that the impact of exploitation of mineral resources on the land including the mine site will not be lost by closing the mine, when closing the mine, the land left over from mining should be made useful for local communities so that it does not pose a risk to the host ecosystem (Cao: 2007: 474).

In fact, the manifestation of sustainable development in a profession such as mining that deals with non-renewable resources is in the successful restoration of mined land. lies To have a successful renovation, first of all, it is necessary to know the outputs, or the goals of the renovation. According to the division of the Australian Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in general, mine restoration operations are carried out in order to achieve one of the goals (next page) (Monterroso: 1998: 444):

Returning the area to pre-mining conditions as precisely as possible, in such a way that the area's ecosystem is prepared for an optimal use that is completely different from the initial use of the site. In this case, the adopted new use will bring more benefits to the society than the pre-mining use.

The transformation of areas with high ecological values ??that had low productivity before mining is called revitalization.

In other words, mining is a temporary use of land and the principle of sustainable development imposes the establishment and stabilization of an acceptable final land use after closing the mine. Therefore, the central core of mine rehabilitation is to identify the potential of mined land for economically, socially and environmentally beneficial uses. The meaning of choosing an optimal use for a mined land is to identify sustainable end uses; Along with the vulnerability of the land use, the suitability of the land defines the sustainability of a land use. So that a sustainable final use should have maximum efficiency and minimum vulnerability (Sultan Mohammadi: 2006).

1-2 Research Objectives

Feasibility of changing the status of the abandoned open pit mine of Zarshak Valley into a tourist area

Improving the economic, social, cultural and environmental conditions following the creation of a tourist site in the region

1-3 main goal

Realizing the establishment of sustainable development through the conversion of an abandoned open pit mine in the village of Zarshak Valley (of Taft) into a tourist site - Recreation for domestic and foreign tourists

1-4 Research background

At the global level, in the field of changing the use of abandoned mines into tourist sites, as an example, two tourist-recreational sites, Kimberley and Goldriff City in South Africa, and the Eden Project in England can be mentioned, each of which is remarkable and unique in its own way. There are also other examples of this type with various uses that are examined in the next chapter. Since the topic of this thesis is in its own kind and at the national level, it is probably a new category because a similar example for study, investigation and comparison in the field of changing the use of an abandoned mine to a tourist site has not been found, except for Sultan Mohammadi's master's thesis (1386) in the field of mining at the Polytechnic University, in the field of feasibility analysis of the Mote mine in Yazd province, which emphasizes the feasibility analysis after mining. Therefore, it is hoped that in the near future, considering the mineral resources and the increase of open-pit abandoned mines in our country, more attention will be paid to the investigation and feasibility of changing the use of those abandoned mines and achieving long-term goals in the field of sustainable tourism. (Zarshak Valley), is it capable of maintaining the economic dynamism of this place or not?

According to the conditions mentioned in this research and by examining all the options, is there a possibility of turning it into a tourist site (tourism-recreational), after the exploitation of this mine?

1-5-2 Hypotheses

It seems that the change of use of the abandoned mine of Zarshak Valley after exploitation can maintain the economic dynamism of this place.

Changing the use of the abandoned open pit mine site of Dareh Zarshek has the possibility to become a tourist site.

1-6 variables and research indicators

1-6-1 independent variables

Local community (host)

Regional climate (microclimate)

Residual effects of exploitation and mining operations (within 13 years)

1-7 dependent variables

Possibility of changing the use of the abandoned mine site

Possibility of implementing common options for the use of the abandoned mine site

Possibility of turning this site into a tourist-recreational site

Implementing the idea of ??ecotourism in the region (Zarshek Valley village), based on the development of sustainable tourism

1-8 Research methods and work steps

Deciding on issues The type of sustainable development, in which there are many immeasurable variables and conflicting restrictions, and this decision-making must convince different stakeholders with conflicting interests and values ??that interact with each other, is a very complicated task. Therefore, the only solution to deal with such issues is to have a multidimensional view of them. Therefore, MADM multi-indicator decision-making techniques [1], many of which are widely used today, are very suitable for analyzing such issues (Ataei: 1389: 47).

In the main stage of this thesis, which will be discussed in detail in the fifth section, with the physical cooperation of several relevant experts, the prepared questionnaires were answered and the discussed options were weighted based on the relevant criteria and indicators using the software technique (Expert Choice).

Using the Hierarchical Analysis Process method AHP[2] can be very helpful to evaluate the weights of the indicators. However, when the number of indicators and options are large and group decisions are needed, the pairwise comparisons required by this method can be time-consuming and exhausting. In this case, it is recommended to use simpler methods such as the scale method (same source: 48).