A People-Centric Approach to Repurposing Coal Mines in India

As coal-dependent regions increasingly transition away from fossil fuels, questions about how to responsibly close and transform coal mines have gained global attention. In India, where coal mining has created monoeconomies with considerable informal and semi-/unskilled employment opportunities, the closure and transition of coal mines has significant implications for mining communities’ livelihoods and landscapes. However, existing approaches to post-mining land management globally tend to prioritize technical remediation and environmental compliance associated with mine closure and often overlook the voices and priorities of affected communities. Where stakeholder perspectives are solicited, it is most often through structured, quantitative multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) techniques incorporating the perspectives of mining personnel and geotechnical experts rather than community members. Even while India and other countries (e.g., Australia) champion the use of participatory methods and stakeholder involvement in mine‑closure planning, there is still no agreed-upon set of protocols for fostering consistent, in-depth engagement. A critical gap persists between grassroots, community‑led initiatives and more technical top-down approaches, and research from the social sciences on mining remains notably scarce.

This study addresses this gap in the post-mining land use (PMLU) literature by explicitly incorporating social and community priorities into suitability assessments of PMLUs in the Indian context. We propose a “people-centric” approach integrating spatial‑decision support tools with social‑ecological systems thinking, which enables the identification of PMLUs which are not only suitable to the specificities of the mine site, but in line with more pressing socio-economic needs faced by surrounding stakeholders, particularly mining communities. Our three phase approach includes I) compiling information about the mine site, key stakeholders, and the regional context, II) understanding the social-ecological system the mine site is situated in, and III) developing spatially-explicit PMLU recommendations that are both technically appropriate for the site and match stakeholder needs and priorities. 

Phase I involves (re)assessing the mine site to ensure the site meets baseline environmental standards as well as engaging with regional and local stakeholders to solicit priorities, build trust, and set expectations. Phase II uses qualitative system dynamics modelling and causal loop diagrams to understand key social-ecological linkages and feedbacks, and then match the most relevant PMLUs to stakeholder priorities. Phase III involves identifying relevant geotechnical, biophysical, and socioeconomic criteria for each selected PMLU, and conducting a geographic information system (GIS)-MCDA with conflict resolution algorithms to map the most suitable locations within the mine site for each use.

Our workflow is designed to be flexible and responsive to changes in context; each phase operates along a spectrum of Low‑Medium‑High complexity, allowing for differences in data availability and time/resource constraints for stakeholder consultations, which is particularly important in low and middle income contexts like India. By foregrounding community priorities and embracing mixed-methods, we seek to bridge the gap between geotechnical and socio-cultural approaches to coal mine repurposing, identifying PMLUs that are not only technically feasible, environmentally sound, and economically viable, but deliver tangible livelihood benefits while preserving sociocultural ties to the landscape.