Mining landscape is a specific form of industrial landscape distinguished from its periphery because of its special kind of land use pattern and economic function. Mining is one of the pillars holding the modern-day civilizations and mineral extraction is a common practice all over the world. Initiatives by the stakeholders in terms of an awareness campaign and generation of basic tourism facilities are necessary which may lead to the successful development of mining tourism in these sites in the future. This study raises basic and initial issues indicating the mining tourism potential of Raniganj coalfield. Road network analysis is done and two possible tourism routes are suggested. However, the result shows only around 50% feasibility for mining tourism, mainly because of the non-availability of proper tourism infrastructure.
The outcome highlights that although risk factors cannot be neglected in some cases, each site represents diverse mining tourism attractions along with having good connectivity and accessibility. The guidelines of the Ministry of Tourism of India are followed for tourism circuit demarcation. The tourism attractions for each mining site are classified following Jolliffe and Conlin (2011), whereas, the assessment criteria are prepared after Kubalíková (2017). To conduct the research, five mines from Raniganj coalfield have been selected based on their comparatively high degree of preservation, good connectivity, and quality to show the interconnectedness of mining tourism with other forms of tourism such as geotourism and heritage tourism. This study focuses on the potential of mining tourism in the oldest coalfield of India. The equipment of the services did not directly determine the number of visitors, who did not perceive the risk and danger of visiting mining brownfields. The questionnaire survey confirmed that mining brownfields are interesting destinations for (mining) tourism with long-term sustainability. According to our findings and the latest theoretical and methodological literature about other types of brownfields, we compiled a comprehensive definition of mining brownfields. The result of our several years of field research was a database of mining brownfields in Slovakia. In the second part, we analyze mining brownfields as devastated mining sites using a questionnaire survey conducted among students of geotourism and geography at three Slovak universities in Košice, Banská Bystrica, and Prešov. In the first part of the paper, we deal with the theoretical basis of the study, the conceptualization of mining brownfields, possibilities for their revitalization, and their sustainability for mining tourism. This study analyzes the issue of mining brownfields (sites abandoned after the extraction of minerals) in terms of their secondary use after revitalization as potential new sites of mining tourism. The paper closes with recommendations for future studies, arising from this review and the identification of research gaps and under-researched areas. Instead, a mind map to show these diverse connections is offered. In the closing part of the paper, various classifications of geoheritage-cultural heritage linkages are proposed, although it is concluded that themes and fields of inquiry are overlapping and interlinked, rendering one classification system not very feasible. Intangible cultural heritage is also reviewed in the geoheritage context. These themes include added cultural value to geoheritage sites, geoheritage in urban spaces, cultural landscapes, and the contribution of geoheritage to their identity, mining and quarrying heritage, linkages with natural disasters, history of science, and art. In this review paper, we identify the main and secondary themes at the geoheritage-cultural heritage interface and provide examples of specific topics and approaches. Relationships between geoheritage and cultural heritage are being increasingly explored and have become one of the mainstreams within studies of geoheritage and geodiversity.
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