Introduction

The IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature, since 1973, has brought together all types of existing protected areas within a unitary classification system in order to avoid confusion. With this classification, we tried to create a homogeneous reference system to allow comparison and exchange of data relating to the different protected areas. The first classification system thus created identified 10 categories of protected areas (Russo and Sulli 2011). During the IV World Congress of National Parks and Protected Areas in 1992, held in Caracas in Venezuela, the classification system was subjected to verification and revision, and on that occasion, guidelines for the identification of the categories of management of the areas were approved and protected with the express purpose of providing an address that would allow to correctly identify which category could be referred to any new protected area (IUCN 1994). The guidelines, which have been updated over the years (Dudley 2008; Stolton et al. 2013), define the different forms of management and the different objectives for each category.

The “mining parks” can be included in category V, Protected terrestrial/marine landscapes: terrestrial and/or marine, a protected area where the interaction of people and nature over time has produced an area of distinct character with significant ecological, biological, cultural, and scenic value and where safeguarding the integrity of this interaction is vital to protecting and sustaining the area and its associated nature conservation and other values (Stolton et al. 2013). Where “mining park” means a more or less extensive area, characterized by a territorial identity, within which not only the single site or monument is protected but also the historical and natural landscape as a whole (AA.VV 2008).

In Italy, there is no specific rule that protects and enhances the mining parks, there is the Code of Cultural Heritage and the Landscape (Codice Urbani 2004), which in the Third part provides for the affixing of constraints for the “assets cultural”and widespread testimonies that represent values to be protected as a whole; and the National framework law n. 394/91 on the parks which provides, as a tool for managing the territory of the park, the drafting of a park plan.

The Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia, while enjoying the recognition of a national park, is foreign to the national framework law on parks n. 394/91. A law conceived for the protection of parks essentially intended as places for the conservation of natural elements and biodiversity: landscapes, forestry assets, wetlands, fauna, etc. Places that seem to exclude, conceptually, the territorial assets deriving from mining-type productive activities, authorized for economic interests, and which have often contributed to altering the “naturalness” of the territory. These are territories that, with a broader meaning than that connected only to the naturalness of protected assets, can nevertheless be configured as anthropized landscapes with overall values that deserve to be protected for their historical-documentary value and for the profound interactions between work and the environmental transformations that these represent (AA.VV 2008). The limits of national legislation are therefore evident, which, even where it has provided for the possibility of setting up mining parks, has not provided for the possibility for these bodies to adopt their own plan able to take into consideration the different areas such as: urban planning, landscape, historical, and archeological. Now the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia, over the last decade, has started the drafting of the territorial planning, taking into consideration the different areas. Building and defining a method in which next to the concept of context, necessary to define the identification of the distribution areas, the artifacts and the significant elements of the mining activity, it has adopted further criteria and indicators necessary to describe the aspects not only spatial and temporal but also those esthetic, historical, and cultural, coming to define an autonomous instrument of planning and protection of the cultural and landscape heritage for the park area.

Brief History of Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia

The Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia has deep roots, its institution is the result of a long process that comes from the conscience of numerous scholars, enthusiasts, and lovers of its territory who have sensed the value and potential of the great technical, scientific, and cultural heritage represented by the millenary mining epic of Sardinia.

The idea of the project, which initially concerned only the areas of the Guspinese Arburese, the Iglesiente and the Sulcis coalfield, dates back to 1973, but it is only during a conference held in Iglesias in 1983 dedicated to the extraction of the industrial archeology (Castelli and Pintus 2005) that the first concrete ideas concerning the park emerged. On this occasion, in fact, the participants began to talk about an industrial archeological park, mining park, and exploitation for tourism purposes and from here emerged important proposals regarding the conservation, reconversion, and reuse of abandoned industrial structures (Mossa et al. 2018). In 1997, the idea of the park became a concrete project proposal, in fact the Sardinian Mining Authority (EMSA – Sardinian mining authority) is the first working group that will develop a DOSSIER to be submitted to UNESCO. With the Dossier, the Park extends to all the historic mining areas of Sardinia and, following visits by various UNESCO commissions in Sardinia and incessant work, is submitted to the UNESCO general assembly in November 1997 and by unanimous vote recognizes the Geopark the first Park of the UNESCO world geosite/geopark network, a network established in the same session. On 30 September 1998, in the presence of representatives of UNESCO, the Italian Government, the Sardinia Region, and EMSA, the declaration presented in Paris on 30 July was confirmed, and the Cagliari Charter was signed, an important document that establishes the cardinal principles on which set up the Park and the goals to be pursued. The signatories, UNESCO, the Italian Government, the Sardinia Region, the Sardinian Universities, the EMSA, commit themselves, within the scope of their competences, to realize the park. Immediately the Progemisa S.p.A., commissioned by the EMSA, carries out the feasibility study of the park. Three more years will pass and only after a long mobilization that has seen the involvement of institutions, associations, workers, and citizens that the law and the decree (Legge 23 dicembre 2000) of the institute (Ministro dell'Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio di concerto con il Ministro delle Attività Produttive e il Ministro dell'Istruzione dell'Università e della Ricerca 2001) will be promulgated. From November 2001, the park will start its activities through a provisional management committee. In 2004, the park consortium adopted its first statute. The institutional regulation, included in the Italian Financial Law L.388/2001, represents a particular novelty in the field of legislation on parks. In fact, it identifies as a manager a consortium similar to research institutions and bodies referred to in L.168/89 and does not use the framework law on protected areas n.394/91. It also establishes a fixed financial allocation for its management. The decree of October 16, 2001, promulgated about a year later, sets the goals, activities, and bodies for its management. With the decree, a modification is introduced which brings together the area of Argentiera-Nurra with that of Gallura and the area of Orani with Guzzurra-Sos Enattos, while area “Sulcis-Iglesiente-Guspinese” is divided into three areas Arburese-Guspinese, Iglesiente, and Sulcis. This change is useful for a better and more balanced management of the whole territory of the Park, in fact in the panorama of national parks, the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia represents an atypical case given the discontinuity of the areas included in its perimeter and the presence of mineral deposits in many different areas of Sardinia. Following the Resolution of the Regional Council of 2.9.2014 No. 34/10 (RAS – Regione Autonoma Sardegna 2014) which calls the Consortium Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia to a direct participation in the management of the historical-cultural heritage of disused mining assets and sites and an activity promotion for scientific and cultural purposes, of the geological heritage of Sardinia; the Minister of the Environment and Territory Protection issued the Decree of 08.09.2016 (Parco Geominerario Storico e Ambientale della Sardegna 2016) which modifies the Founding Decree.

History of Development of the Territorial Planning of Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia

In 2001, the Minister of the Environment and Territory Protection in concert with the Minister of Productive Activities and the Minister of Education, University and Italian Research and in agreement with the Region of Sardinia, established the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia with the objective of ensuring the protection and enhancement of the technical-scientific, historical-cultural, and environmental heritage of Sardinia’s mining sites (Official Gazette No. 265 of 14.11.2001). Starting from 2007, the Consortium of the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia has begun to identify its areas of relevance through a delimitation of more detail with respect to what is defined in the establishment decree. In fact, the first identification (Fig. 1) of the areas took place on the basis of criteria that took into account the historical-cultural evolution of mining activity in Sardinia but did not take into consideration the aspects linked more to the administrative management of the territory. Therefore, it was necessary to redefine the areas in a more detailed manner, defined by specific criteria, and aimed at obtaining an important modification of the territory protection system and a streamlined management of the administrative procedures provided for in the establishment decree which involved and still involve territories of the municipalities belonging to the park. Over the years, various regulatory changes have taken place, in particular the Resolution of the Regional Council of 2.9.2014 No. 34/10 which calls the Consortium of the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia to a direct participation in the management of the historical and cultural heritage of the assets and of disused mining sites and a promotion activity for scientific and cultural purposes, geological heritage of the Sardinian. And then the Decree of 08.09.2016 of the Minister of the Environment and Territory Protection, in agreement with the Minister of Economic Development and the Minister of Education, University and Research and in agreement with the Minister of Goods and Cultural Activities and Tourism and with the Sardinia Region (Ministro dell'Ambiente e della Tutela del Territorio di concerto con il Ministro delle Attività Produttive e il Ministro dell'Istruzione dell'Università e della Ricerca 2016) which modifies the establishment decree. The new decree provides for the identification of the areas, the manufactures and the significant elements of the mining activity with significant historical, cultural, and environmental value deserving of concrete conservation actions, and the related use discipline is prepared as an integral part of the provisions of the park self-regulation. Therefore, within the perimeter of the park, the cartographic representation in 1:10.000 scale, of four distinct types of areas, was envisaged, because of the landscape and environmental value to be identified in:

  1. a)

    Mining areas of non-geomineral importance, areas that present a soil, subsoil, and hydrogeological risk

  2. b)

    Areas of context of the Park with monumentality, geomorphology, and color, areas related to mining that can take a state of monumentality, such as red mud

  3. c)

    Mining areas with a strong value in industrial archeology, areas, and quarries present in the Regional Plan for mining activities and any other area considered valid for the purposes of safeguarding such as ex-washery, machinery, wells, and other elements of mining industrial archeology. The areas characterized by historical settlements, as per art. 51 of the NPRs of the PPR, in particular, the mining and industrial villages as specialized centers of the job

  4. d)

    Mining areas with a prevalence of geomorphology with possible changes deriving from landfills, areas with characteristics of geomorphological value such as dunes, plateaus, empty mining; in particular, areas deriving from mining activities that now represent distinctive elements of the morphology of places and things, such as large excavations of cultivation that act as witnesses to the activity and which have permanently modified the original state of the places.

Fig. 1
figure 1

Areas of interest of the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia established by the 2001 Decree

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Following these changes, the Consortium of the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia to comply with the provisions of the new decree initiated the activities of identifying and perimetrating the areas identified in the selection criteria and based on historical documentation (historical maps, photos, orthophotos, bibliographic data, etc.), territorial and landscape analyzes. The study was carried out with the help of new GIS technologies, which allow the extraction of the necessary information thanks to the overlap and aggregation of several sources of information available.

Criteria for the Identification of the Areas Established by the Decree of 8 September 2016

The preparation of the Plan of the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia has immediately highlighted the need for a different approach with respect to the classical canons inherent to the protected areas. In fact, for the correct management of protected areas, it is necessary to delimit areas with different degrees of human use, in compliance with the principles of conservation but also of traditional and nontraditional activities that may be present in the park area. In general, comprehensive protection areas are provided where no human activity is foreseen, leaving ecosystems free to evolve; of areas where traditional human activities can be carried out (farming, use of the forest, hiking activities, etc.) and areas with a strong human presence such as agricultural or urban areas (Russo and Sulli 2011). It is evident that this approach was not applicable in the preparation of the Territorial Plan of the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia. In fact, the need to regulate themes that are often transversal with respect to traditional disciplinary sectors, addressing problems that can overcome any fixed area limit, have led the planners to seek adequate methods to respond to the disciplinary contents indicated in the institute decree. In the same way, the subdivision in areas of competence for increasing importance, often concentric (Olivieri 2000; Calzolaio 2007), was badly configured in a study of a territory as complex as that of the entire former mining sector of Sardinia. In fact, inside it were not only found minerals, such as ex-washery, historic buildings, mining ports, etc., but also goods such as mine entrances, tunnels, natural monuments, caves of unique beauty in the world, ports dug into cliffs, and not the least geosites of relevance not only regional but also national and international. To this is added the mining landscape, which in fact has an indefinable and unquantifiable value and for whose study criteria of analysis are made even more indispensable and interdisciplinary projects (involving skills ranging from naturalist to historical) able to grasp the complex articulation of territorial and ecosystem balances (Mistretta and Garau 2013). The first step was to define the criteria for identifying within the historical areas of interest of the park (Monte Arci, Orani-Guzzurra-Sos Enattos, Funtana Raminosa; Argentiera-Nurra-Gallura, Sarrabus-Gerrei, Sulcis, Iglesiente; Arburese-Guspinese – Fig. 1) the following issues, as identified in the Decree of amendment of 2016:

  1. a)

    Mineral areas of non-geomineral importance: areas that present a soil, subsoil, and hydrogeological risk

  2. b)

    Areas of context of the park with landscape, geomorphological, and chromatic monumentality: areas linked to mining activity that can assume a state of monumentality, such as red mud

  3. c)

    Mining areas with strong industrial archeology: areas and quarries present in the regional plan of mining activities and any other area considered valid for the purpose of safeguarding such as former washing plants, machinery, wells, and other elements of mining industrial archeology. The areas characterized by historical settlements, as per Art. 51 of the NPRs of the PPR (RAS – Regione Autonoma Sardegna 2004), in particular, the mining and industrial villages as specialized centers of work

  4. d)

    Mining areas with a geomorphologic prevalence with possible changes deriving from landfills: areas with characteristics of geomorphological value such as dunes, plateaus, empty hollows; in particular, areas deriving from mining activities that now represent distinctive elements of the morphology of places and things, such as large excavations of cultivation that act as witnesses to the activity and which have permanently modified the original state of the places

Criteria for Mining Areas of Non-geomineral Importance

The identification of this theme did not require the selection of particular criteria as it deals with all those historical areas identified by the 2001 decree that have an importance from a historical-cultural and environmental point of view but not purely geominerary. The Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia was firstly divided into 8 areas that narrate not only the mining events of Sardinia but also its history and culture. With the Decree of 2016, the legislator did not want to completely eliminate this historical-cultural character precisely to underline the uniqueness of the park.

Criteria for Context Areas of the Park with Landscape, Geomorphological, and Chromatic Monumentality

The criterion for defining this theme derives from the analysis of the decree (Art.1 paragraph 5 letter “b” of the Decree 16 October 2001 modified by Decree 8 September 2016, Ministry of the Environment and Protection of the Territory and Sea) in which the Areas of context of the Park with landscape, geomorphological and chromatic monumentality ... omissis.

The word monument identifies works of great artistic and historical value; therefore the reference to the landscape, geomorphological, and chromatic monumentality highlights the high value, the majesty, or the majesty of a part of the territory strictly connected to mining activity. However, it is necessary to clarify the meaning of context, understood as: the context includes the physical spatial and temporal situation in which the mining activity takes place or occurred in this case, the socio-cultural situation within which it is defined, completed by the situation cognitive at present. Therefore the context can be defined spatially as that areal that includes single or associated elements, with a high value, even monumental, close to mining activity so as to define a physical-perceptive-relational space, a historical time, often reflected on the environment natural, rural, and urban, a social and economic situation. We can thus define the context areas such as those areas that identify the territorial connective tissue that relates the area of mining activity (intervention lot of land) with the surrounding territorial area. On the one hand, this allows us to recognize the status of the places, the dynamics, and the existing relationships, while on the other, to tell the story, the culture and also a possible future evolution. However, the context criterion is not sufficient to define the areas of this theme because the realities present in Sardinian territory often differ substantially while recognizing a value to the elements and to their whole. The areas of context of the park with landscape, geomorphological, and chromatic monumentality are always linked to the other two themes: mining areas with a strong industrial archeology and mining areas with a prevalence of geomorphology with possible changes deriving from landfills; which includes one or more of one. Therefore, it was necessary to identify further criteria that although not having a simultaneous application; however, according to the cases, only some find practical applicative because of the prevalence of the character of the extractive activity or activities present in the territory. Besides the criterion of context itself, 4 macro-criteria have been identified:

  1. 1.

    Criterion of physical spatial and temporal relations

  2. 2.

    Criterion of monumentality and high value

  3. 3.

    Sociocultural criterion

  4. 4.

    Perceptual esthetic criterion

Criterion of Physical Spatial and Temporal Relations

It is the criterion that identifies the relationships and interactions between the mining activity and its closest space closely linked to the mining activity that determined a territory morphologically transforming it, in a more or less extensive way. It is about:

  1. a)

    Relationships related to the physical movements of the community that resides in those places currently or that has worked on it: roads, paths, specifically formed connection routes, historical or recent routes, and valley or ridge paths;

  2. b)

    Relationships that occur through the ancient tracks of railway infrastructures and equipment serving the mining activity, such as ports, embarkation, buildings for material transformation, etc. also not identified as “areas c or d”

  3. c)

    Relationships between linear infrastructures, where they are totally or partially linked to the extraction activity, in places of simple crossing or connection, determine areas of context that are also linear, parallel to the infrastructure

  4. d)

    Reports on the basis of the geology given by the information in the thematic cartography available to the RAS, on the basis of a possible homogeneous finding. Significant lithological surveys (e.g., reliefs belonging to the Paleozoic base, basaltic reliefs, carbonate reliefs, granite reliefs)

  5. e)

    Relations between punctual extraction activities that are receded in different but close places, so that they can be considered homogeneous linked to extracted materials (glassy materials, anthracite, etc.), such as to determine a context

Criterion of Monumentality and High Value

The criterion of monumentality allows to define the areas of context that can include elements, always in close relationship with the recognized mining activity, considered of high value that can determine a landscape, a geomorphological configuration, and a chromatic set of monumental character, evaluated for their:

  1. a)

    Integrity: persistence over time is detected without external agents that have modified the ecological, formal, natural, or artificial balances

  2. b)

    Relevance: scientific, historical, and cultural importance recognized by multilevel communities, such as to constitute an emblematic recognized value

  3. c)

    Rarity: it is not often detected in other places or difficulties in finding it over time, which is why it is difficult to reproduce

  4. d)

    Representativeness: it covers or can hold the representativeness function of a historical time, of a culture or identity of a place, even in an imaginary or immaterial way

The recognition and inclusion of monumental and high-value elements contribute to completing the reference context and reconstructing the spatial and temporal conditions in which extractive activity is present, thus leading to the recognition of:

  1. a.

    Natural landscapes, in which there are plant coverings in the various associations of woods, Mediterranean scrub, reliefs, soils, hydrographic network, the whole characterized by a configuration still mostly intact

  2. b.

    Rural landscapes, of which there is a high value for the relevance that it holds for the community in terms of production, technical-organizational, and traditional practices as evidence of an agropastoral society in which mining activity is often included

  3. c.

    Morphological elements in close contact with mining activities such as the valley as far as possible in its conformation and completeness; the slope (orographic) from the valley bottom to the ridge; the orographic relief (mountain, hill, greenhouse, cuesta, cuccuru, etc.) in its morphological completeness; the river or flood in its conformation

Sociocultural Criterion

The areas of context can find their configuration also through the inclusion of social and cultural aspects that characterize the places related to the extraction activity, in this case they can also assume an immaterial connotation, documented, or told.

  1. a.

    Social: the mining activity has conditioned the constitution of an entirely or partially dedicated working company, with the consequent construction of villages, settlements that have conditioned the settlement of a territory; the social transformations induced by the extractive activity have conditioned the abandonment of a social structure mainly agro-pastoral toward other structures (industrial, tertiary), with the consequent abandonment of the historical configurations

  2. b.

    Cultural: all the historical, architectural, archeological, identity elements in relation to the mining activity linked to the population and its relationship with the territory, constitute material, and immaterial evidence of a mining civilization.

Perceptual Esthetic Criterion

This theme is also identified according to an esthetic perceptive criterion that mainly allows a fruition of places that can read its aspects and characteristics in relation to the extractive activity. The tracks and the road routes, the points of viewpoint that allow to build the views of the places are privileged. This determines that the contextual area is configured to include spatial spatial components (elements, landscapes, settlements, etc.) in their entirety, relying mainly on visual limits and natural boundaries such as urban boundaries; crop limit; main and/or secondary ridges; limit of marine coast; peaks, trigonometric points, top of the hills; limits and hems of the plateau; rivers and impluvi. In the context of the context, the insertions of the anthropic or natural landscape elements with a high perceptive value that are detected in the territory in relation to the mining activity are privileged, such as to underline its presence and to frame the activity in the geography of the place, as well as are part of the context the presence of modified parts of the territory that have assumed formal peculiarities (mountain, simple relief, plateau, hillside, sweet or steep slope, etc.) chromatic with a perceptive and identifying value of the mining activity.

Criteria for Mining Areas with Strong Industrial Archeology

The criterion used to define this theme uses a temporal parameter, that is to say, industrial architecture is defined as the whole built for more than 50 years. Therefore mining areas with strong industrial archeology identify mining sites and related assets and tools of interest for the history of science and technology whose construction dates back more than 50 years, if mobile, or over 70 years, if real estate that have historic value, as defined by the Urban Code. In this way, a spatial context is defined that contains within it various functional and/or spatially related emergencies, the result of progressive modifications and evidence of the interaction of the anthropic presence and of the natural environment characterized by the presence of mineral resources.

Criteria for Mining Areas with a Geomorphological Prevalence with Possible Changes Deriving from Landfills

The criteria for identifying mining areas with a geomorphological prevalence, with possible modifications deriving from landfills, they are based on:

  1. 1.

    Qualitative aspects

  2. 2.

    Temporal character and current use

  3. 3.

    Proximity and functional relationships

In general, this theme is recognized by the presence of obvious distinctive elements (excavations, voids, landfills, excavations, etc. ...) that have changed the natural morphology of the places due to mining or quarrying even in the absence of the typical artifacts of the areas strongly valued industrial archeology.

Qualitative Aspects

This criterion contains qualitative indicators such as:

  1. a)

    Diversity: identifiable through the study of the orthophotos of the area through the recognition of the characters/elements that make it possible to distinguish it from the area in its immediate surroundings. In addition to the qualitative evaluation of color transitions in the historical series of orthophotos, we consider the main topographic symbols (level curves, dimensioned points, terrain shapes, water courses, vegetation, etc.) represented in the technical charts and digital models of the ground

  2. b)

    Integrity: it is necessary to evaluate the actual existence of signs of excavations, excavations, landfills; if there are currently no signs of previous mining or quarrying activity but are found in historical orthophotos, an indicative boundary is maintained, as can be recognized by the orthophotos themselves, so as not to lose the immaterial value of the site

  3. c)

    Scenic/panoramic value: in identifying the perimeter, the particular scenic qualities inherent in the area are taken into account in order to maintain the panoramic value that can be seen from the networks (roads, paths, railways) and points (panoramic) of main neighboring use

  4. d)

    Intangible value: takes into account intangible characteristic elements such as the historical importance of mining or quarrying, the presence of minerals or concentrated materials in some particular sites that have been extracted

Identical value is recognized for the areas of historic quarry with integrity (e.g., cava in the city center of Carloforte), whose materials are still recognizable in the works in which they were used, which, in turn, have strongly modified the places leaving a tangible sign for the communities (e.g., fortifications, bridges, port works ...).

Temporal Character and Current Use

A further criterion is the temporal character of the signs of morphological changes due to mining or quarrying that can be permanent if the historical processes are still visible (e.g., excavations, excavations, mine, or quarry dumps) not recovered or no longer recognizable, even with different use, but with such importance as to be perimeters to maintain the historical memory, to be submitted to possible deepening successes or still recent works of quarry or mine not recovered from abandoned or suspended activities; temporary if the historical or recent works in the open, even in itinere, consisting of excavations, piles, and landfills that have been or will be affected by renaturalization, reuse, or recovery or quarrying or quarrying work for which the recovery; finally seasonal as the piles of collection of materials of mining cultivation (e.g., salt).

Proximity and Functional Relationships

The last criterion for defining this theme is given by the proximity of the mining or quarry area with a geomorphological prevalence located near other areas but not in functional relation with them or not near other areas. Therefore, when neighboring areas are referable to the same type of processing, mining or quarrying, or in a functional relationship with each other, they can be included in the same perimeter paying attention to the elements of the road infrastructure that connect or share them (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2
figure 2

Evolution of the boundaries (2007–2018) of the Areas of the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia, to meet the specifications of the 2016 Decree

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Discussion and Conclusions

The mining activity has profoundly changed the whole Sardinian territory, affected by over 4000 years of mining history. The last three centuries have brought about significant changes in the territory: forests have been cut down, mountains have been dug, tunnels have been created, harbors in the cliffs, etc., all this has deeply affected the territory with indelible marks. The mining era eventually left the territory signs of aging, and flourishing and rich era remained testifying disused mining areas, construction sites, washing plants, ovens, stoves, open excavations, large settling basins, and anything else you can imagine as a symbol of pollution and upheaval of the territory.

The idea of the the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia was born simultaneously with the idea of creating mining parks in the world, which aimed to transform the mining era from something destructive to something constructive to pass on to future generations. In fact, it was not just destruction, the works of admirable mining engineering carried out to support the mining activities have, in some cases, the incredible testimony to the almost love and hate relationship that the mining world has always had toward the earth. All this tangible and intangible cultural heritage has today resulted in several UNESCO programs protecting and safeguarding these assets.

The planning aims to create where it was previously destroyed, using what has been created and created by the washing plants to the settling muds to the tunnels that represent the mining context to be protected and made available to future generations. In this way, with proper planning, development is created with tourism and the creation of cultural flows. So even today, after many years from their closure, the mines return to represent an economic driving force for the territory.

The Territorial Plannning with its Regulation brings an important change in the system of protection of the territory of the park and in the administrative procedures connected to the institute decree that involve all 90 municipalities of the Historical and Environmental Geomineral Park of Sardinia. The objective of the park territorial planning is to indicate the territorial areas of particular interest according to a substantial classification of the factors that justify the destination choices, activating a close cooperation between the local administrations and the park in order to protect the territory and the simplification of all administrative procedures, such as authorizations, etc. The identified territorial areas are 5:

Area 1: Mining Areas with a Strong Industrial Archeology Value

It includes all the mining areas and quarries already present within the Regional Mining Plan – PRAE, and any other area not registered but deemed valid for the purpose of safeguarding. The areas of industrial archeology that include such as ex washing plants, machinery, wells, and anything else are strictly part of industrial mining archeology.

Area 2: Geomorphological Prevalence of Mining Areas with Possible Modifications Deriving from Landfills

It includes areas with characteristics of geomorphological significance falling within the park, in particular, if facing areas of Area 1, such as dunes, plateaus, mining voids, etc. In particular, they include areas deriving from mining activities that now represent distinctive elements of the morphology of places and things, for example, large-scale cultivation excavations that for decades have served as witnesses to mining activity and have permanently modified the original state of the places.

Area 3: Areas of Context of the Park with Landscape, Geomorphological, and Chromatic Monumentality

It includes only those areas related to mining that can take on a state of “landscape monumentality.” An example, in particular, the red mud: elements of distinction of the landscape, they represent the union between landscape and mining memory, characterizing not only a unique and distinctive element of the Iglesias valley from the point of view of the landscape context but also a testimony of the abandonment of processing mud, which with their chromatic particularity stand out and distinguish the valley.

Area 4: Areas of Non-geominerary Importance Currently Included in the Park Territory

It includes the areas set out in the Park’s decree in their entirety.

Area 5: Areas of Geominerary Relevance that Present a Soil, Subsoil, and Hydrogeological Risk

They include all the elements present in a context of mining excavations that are difficult to detect due to the normal prevention activities on the surface and that represent a risk to be indicated and signaled, such as mining voids and collapses.

To better understand what the Territorial Planning involves on a practical level, the example of the Area of Orani-Guzzura-Sos Enattos is reported. In Fig. 3, the territory of the Municipality of Orani is mapped based on the provisions of the 2001 Decree of the Institute, where the Park limits coincide entirely with the administrative limits of the Municipality of Orani and where consequently, any activity was subjected to opinion.

Fig. 3
figure 3

Excerpt of the Orani-Guzzurra-Sos Enattos Area from the Park’s Decree (in light blue) and the Park Area coinciding with the Administrative limit of the Municipality of Orani (black line)

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The Territorial Planning, within the various municipal administrative limits, identifies areas for which the park consortium will carry out a control and monitoring activity expressing, exclusively in the areas of interest, an opinion on the sustainability of interventions in relation to site protection, while the other proceedings will be subject to verification of compliance with the procedures in force by the competent Bodies. In the example inherent, the Municipality of Orani is clearly evident (Fig. 4), as the area pertaining to the park is reduced and interests only the areas closely related to mining

Fig. 4
figure 4

Within the Municipality of Orani, Area 3 submitted to the Park’s prior opinion (in red)

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The redefinition of the Areas of the Historical and Environmental Geomining Park of Sardinia has led to the identification of various criteria and indicators able to respond:

  • The need to identify correctly the identified themes

  • To guarantee homogeneous areas of immediate identification and management (areas)

The adoption of these criteria has allowed us to start a process of safeguarding, protecting, and planning interventions that allow the application of specific rules for authorization procedures that vary according to the specific nature of the identified themes. In this way, it is possible to free the areas and activities not directly interacting with the historical and cultural evidence of mining activity from the opinion of the park authority, leaving the town councils concerned with the urban management of the same.

The activity was also carried out thanks to the implementation of the Program Agreement between the Geological Mining Historical and Environmental Park of Sardinia and the Sardinia Region Assessorate for Local Authorities, Finance and Urban Planning, ratified by the Deliberation No. 59 of 28.12.2016 of the Park Historical and environmental geomineral of Sardinia (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5
figure 5

Some areas of evidence of mining activity in Sardinia

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