122 / 2021-09-30 21:07:40

Development and actualization of brownfields database with the use of unmanned aerial vehicles - the case of Upper Silesia, Poland.

brownfields, database, UAV, post-minig areas,

The economic development of European countries, especially in the EU, has resulted in the disappearance of traditional industrial regions. Currently, the transformation process concerns the largest coal mining region in the EU - Upper Silesia in Poland. Among the many social, economic and environmental consequences in the spatial aspect, the emergence of a large number of brownfields. The process of remediation and redevelopment of brownfields requires the creation of a complex organizational and financial system. The base to start restoring the role of these sites in socio-economic context is the information base including characteristics of these sites. The problem of access to information on brownfields does not concern only Poland, but also other European countries with industrial history. In Belgium, for example, there is no reliable quantitative data on brownfield sites. Only in Wallonia has such an inventory been carried out, which includes formerly economically active sites. Registered sites include sites suspected of being contaminated and sites with little or no contamination but in need of remediation (Maes at all 2007). In Europe, the need for an inventory of brownfields is also indicated by researchers outside the European Union, who indicate the need to develop a database of degraded sites at the national level, taking into account the geographical location, status and land use. Experts also highlight the role of public access to these data as a first step in solving the problem of revitalization of brownfields and degraded areas (Ignjatić at all., 2017) (Vujičić, Tijana, 2017). In the case of the Upper Silesian Coal Basin under analysis, there is currently no up-to-date, systematised and publicised database of post-industrial sites despite the fact that the base was so established several years ago. The dispersion of information and the dynamics of change within brownfields and their immediate surroundings are serious barriers to the construction of the database and especially its subsequent updating, which caused problems in the functioning of the previous database. The amount of these areas is also a problem. The development of an information system that collects spatial data, including highly variable data, poses a huge challenge in terms of ensuring that the system is up to date, and only such a system can support the process of restoring sites to economic use. It was decided to use several types of data to build a database of post-industrial sites for the Silesia Voivodeship. The article describes the methodology and scope of data that can be collected using drones covering surface infrastructure and land use of brownfields, allowing for the identification of negative phenomena on their site as well as monitoring of naturally occurring processes. The article presents the benefits of using drones, the limitations and advantages over other data sources for the inventory of brownfields and their potential to monitoring changes in these spaces. The article is based on an inventory of 200 brownfield sites in Upper Silesia.