Date of Award

1982

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Earth & Environmental Systems

Abstract

Three research hypotheses were tested in order to determine if reclamation legislation enacted by the State of Indiana before 1978 appeared to help form the cultural landscape of the state's coal mining region. A two-stage sampling procedure was used to select mined land in certain township and range survey sections as representative of all land surface coal mined throughout the state. The pre- and post-mining uses of land included in the sample were determined through the use of air photographs, while the date of mining occurrence was ascertained from six sources of information, including affected area reports assembled by the Indiana Division of Reclamation. Data were collected in a form suitable for chi-square analysis to test whether or not (1) there were significant pre-mining land use differences between areas surface coal mined during Indiana's different statutory reclamation laws and amendments, (2) there were significant post-mining land use differences, and (3) land mined under the later reclamation laws was more similar to its pre-mining use than land mined under the earlier reclamation laws. The results of the statistical tests indicated significant differences in both the pre- and post-mining land uses of areas mined under the different statutory laws and amendments. Larger percentages of cropland were mined under the later reclamation laws. Grassland was the dominant post-mining use of land mined under the 1967 law, but forest was the principal post-mining use of land mined before that law was enacted and throughout the state as a whole. Regional land use differences between Indiana's northern and southern mining areas were discovered. Land mined under the later reclamation laws was more similar to its pre-mining use than land mined under the earlier laws. The laws did help shape the cultural landscape of Indiana's coal mining region.

Download

Share

COinS