Strategic Landscape Planning for Mining-Pond Landscapes as Blue-Green Infrastructure

Strategic landscape planning requires spatially explicit methods for assessing peri-urban mining landscapes. This study develops a multi-scale geospatial framework to assess 1284 mining ponds in Hungary through land-cover patterns, spectral indicators, ring-zone analysis and mining-pond spatial linkage patterns. The study shifts assessment from individual pond units to spatially grouped mining-pond complexes and distinguishes water surface expansion from changes in terrestrial vegetation, wetlands, and reedbeds. A detailed case study of the Délegyháza gravel mining-pond system illustrates how recreational use, shoreline transformation and suburbanization pressure are spatially associated with landscape changes. Mining ponds frequently occur in spatially grouped mining-pond complexes with distinct zonal structures. Shoreline zones show higher vegetation regeneration potential, while outer ring zones are more strongly affected by agricultural, urban and infrastructural pressures. In Délegyháza, the declining Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and increasing Bare Soil Index (BSI) values during 2016–2024 indicate reduced vegetation activity and more artificial or disturbed surface characteristics. Open water surface expansion should not be interpreted automatically as ecological regeneration. Differentiated buffer zoning, mining-pond-complex-level planning and post-mining landscape monitoring can support the integration of mining ponds into blue-green infrastructure networks and EU Nature restoration objectives.