Assessment of Post-Mining Utilization Potential Using GIS and AHP: A Comparative Study of the United States and South Korea

Abstract

This study presents an integrated framework that combines Geographic Information System (GIS)-based spatial analysis with the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to quantitatively evaluate the tourism and educational reuse potential of abandoned mines. Five spatial indicators—population density, slope, urban ratio, road accessibility, and proximity to tourist attractions—were normalized using logarithmic transformation and cumulative distribution functions and weighted through expert-based AHP evaluation. The framework was applied to large-scale mine datasets in the United States and South Korea, followed by in-depth case validation in the Gangwon region. The results indicate that successfully redeveloped mines consistently exhibited higher composite scores than the national averages in both countries, confirming the framework’s explanatory power. The Gangwon analysis further demonstrated that mine reuse potential extends beyond tourism to include smart mining education and environmental testbed applications. Overall, this study provides a transferable GIS–AHP model for assessing post-mining utilization and supports evidence-based, region-specific policy design for sustainable mine redevelopment.