Post-industrial urban quarries as places of recreation and the new wilderness – a South African perspective

The objective of this article is threefold: To re-evaluate the concept of wilderness as a place to be experienced by human beings as part of their outdoor recreational needs; to investigate if reclaimed post-industrial urban quarries can fulfil these needs, and to investigate the legislative frameworks in South Africa within which such reclamation and re-use can be undertaken. The objective is not to present detailed case studies of post-industrial urban quarries that have been rehabilitated or redeveloped for a different land use, but rather to demonstrate the potential of such quarries. The majority of South Africa’s population is urbanised and has hardly any prospect, due to various constraints, of ever visiting natural or even ‘man-made wilderness’ areas for recreational purposes. The currently held concept of wilderness is critically evaluated and the need to change our perception of wilderness is discussed. The biophysical and socio-economic nature, as well as the legal framework, within which the redevelopment potential of our ubiquitous post-industrial urban quarries must be viewed, are examined to determine whether they can be reclaimed as outdoor recreation places and a new ‘urban wilderness’. It is shown, through a literature review and examining five case studies, that reclaimed quarries can satisfy urban dwellers’ innate need for outdoor recreational spaces and natural or wilderness areas, albeit man-made and despite the procedural challenges posed by the requirements of the South African regulatory urban spatial planning frameworks and Acts.


INTRODUCTION
The mountains are calling and I must go.
In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.(John Muir 1838-1914, in Wolfe, 1979: 313).
This yearning by John Muir expresses a wish that is probably not attainable by the majority of urban dwellers who do not have the means to travel to often distant 'natural' nature areas.
Over 63% of South Africa's population is urbanised (RSA, 2011) and a sizeable number of them have no prospect, mainly due to financial constraints, of ever visiting natural or even 'man-made wilderness' areas for recreational purposes.Cronon (1996a: 85) deplores the fact that the so-called 'wilderness experience' is often viewed as a form of recreation enjoyed only by those "...whose class privileges give them the time and resources to leave their jobs behind…".
It is argued that, to fulfil human beings' need for access to wilderness areas for recreational purposes, their perception of what constitutes wilderness must be critically evaluated with the view to accept the new reality of an urbanising world.The need to identify and develop suitable pockets of land in or close to the urban landscape to satisfy this requirement has thus become imperative.
It is also argued that the ubiquitous post-industrial and abandoned quarries in urban areas are well suited to be reclaimed to satisfy the need for a 'new wilderness'.As remnants of once economically viable industrial enterprises, Bartsch and Collaton (cited in Allen, 2012: 157) find that " [v]irtually every city in industrial regions, no matter its size grapples with the challenge of unused manufacturing facilities and other industrial sites".Allen labels these sites post-industrial latent spaces (PILS) and suggests that, in these PILS, a new urbis incognita, a hidden, forgotten and ignored wilderness in the city, has emerged and replaced the virginal wilderness, the previous terra incognita (Allen, 2012).

THE NEED FOR PARKS, OTHER RECREATIONAL PLACES AND AN URBAN 'WILDERNESS'
The etymology of the term 'park' refers to an enclosed preserve for animals to be hunted.The term 'wilderness' refers to the place where flora and fauna are allowed to run wild (Odhams Dictionary of the English Language, s.a.: 1189).Only much later was the meaning of the term 'park' expanded to include "An ornamental piece of ground enclosed for public or private recreation" (Odhams Dictionary of the English Language, s.a.: 764).This is similar to one meaning of the word 'garden', i.e., "serving as a place of rest and recreation" (Odhams Dictionary of the English Language, s.a.: 471).
Various authors find that there is an increasing demand for 'green' areas and outdoor amenity spaces in urban centres to provide in the inhabitants' recreational needs and to foster their growing environmental awareness (Allen, 2012;Lisberg Jensen & Oui, 2008;Martin & Berlin, 2012a;Rojek, 2005).In this regard, Damigos and Kaliampakos (2003: 249) suggest that 'green' spaces provide aesthetic, ecological and economic benefits.They also include functions such as air pollution control, noise reduction, improvement of microclimatological conditions and provision of recreational opportunities that have a physical and psychological effect on human health.Authors such as Kellert, Heerwagen and Mador (2008) and Wilson (1984) note their concern that, despite our biophilic nature, the ill-considered exploitation of natural systems that could provide the above benefits continues.(Stigsdotter, 2005: 17).
It is suggested that all the above characteristics are able to be reproduced in a man-made 'natural' recreational environment, except the concept of wildness that may require a re-appraisal by many urbanites.

THE CONCEPT OF 'WILDERNESS' -HOW THE MEANING HAS CHANGED OVER TIME
The term 'wilderness' was, as recently as the 18 th century, used primarily to describe a desolate, barren, deserted place where only wild animals roamed.The term is derived from the old English term wildèornes or wild deer (New Oxford Dictionary of English, 2001) and has often been portrayed by painters and writers as a place to be feared, to be exiled to, or, in a figurative sense, referring to a position of disfavour.
By the end of the 19 th century, this meaning had, however, changed.
From John Muir's (Scottish-American naturalist and prominent pioneer of the preservation of wilderness areas in the United States of America) extensive oeuvre on the sublime and intrinsic value of the wilderness, a newly found appreciation of wilderness developed.Cronon (1996a: 80) comments that the belief at the time was that "[w]ilderness is the natural, unfallen antithesis of an unnatural civilization that has lost its soul.It is a place of freedom in which we can recover the true selves we have lost to the corrupting influences of our artificial lives".The paradox arising from this paradigm is that, if we believe that nature, in order to be true, must also be wild, then questions our presence in nature: "… our very presence in nature represents its fall.The place where we are is the place where nature is not" (Cronon,1996a: 80-81).He then finds that "…by definition wilderness can offer no solution to the environmental and other problems that confront us" (Cronon, 1996a: 81).Cronon (1996a: 85) suggests that we tend to idealise only a distant wilderness, i.e., 'unspoilt' rain forests, mountains, and canyons, instead of the environment in which we actually live and which, in any event, is the place where most of our environmental problems start and where an environmental ethic about using nature sustainably more than not using nature is required.He makes a further valid point (Cronon, 1996a: 85) by finding that this wilderness dualism tends to label any use of the wilderness as 'abuse', thus denying us a middle ground where responsible use and non-use could attain a sustainable relationship with nature.Our often dismissive and even contemptuous description of 'nature in urban places' that does not fit the mould of nature in the 'distant wilderness' causes us not to appreciate the potential of places such as post-industrial quarries in our urban environments to become the new 'wilderness' (Cronon, 1996a: 86).
Various authors have expounded on the need of urbanites to have access to wilderness areas for recreational and other purposes (Jordan, 1994;Lisberg Jensen & Oui, 2008;Stigsdotter, 2005) is quite profoundly a human creation -indeed, the creation of very particular human cultures at very particular moments in human history".He points out that we are mistaken if "…we suppose that wilderness can be the solution to our culture's problematic relationships with the non-human world" (Cronon, 1996a: 70).
The very idea of 'reinventing' nature is without doubt offensive to many people because nature is so closely related to their deepest, individual, social, and national values (Olwig, 1996: 379).He points out though that, if people are to acknowledge the "…questionable ways their concepts of nature can affect the way they act upon their physical environment, then they must question these values.They must realise that the 'natural' values they find in their environment are given not by physical nature but by society (Olwig, 1996: 379).
Many authors have even begun to question the ideology of landscape preservation; this is based on Baldwin, De Luce and Pletsch's (1994) observation of how much of nature has been transformed in our lifetime: …we are learning how nature had already been reshaped by our species in the past; and we are realizing that there is not much left to preserve in its pristine state anyway.Furthermore, we are less and less clear about what it would mean to preserve nature… In the best of circumstances, preservation is applicable only to the limited portion of earth that has not already been tampered with (Baldwin et al., 1994: 5).
A new 'nature' and 'wilderness' has to be found; searching only in places deemed 'unspoilt' by man will be fruitless; redefining the concept of 'wilderness' will allow us to find it in abandoned urban, or post-industrial sites such as quarries.

HOW POST-INDUSTRIAL URBAN SITES CAN FULFIL THE NEED OF URBANITES FOR A 'WILDERNESS' ENVIRONMENT
The issue now confronting us is the realisation that post-industrial urban sites, such as quarries, often functionally cut off, but geographically located within current urban boundaries, could and should be reclaimed.This realisation supports Bradshaw and Chadwick's (1980: x) contention that we can no longer afford to think of land as a resource to be used once and only for a single purpose.Bradshaw and Chadwick (1980: 282-283) argue that [t]he wasteful acquisitive behaviour of Western civilisation as it spread through the world has become legendary… We still believe we can move on from one resource to another as each is used up: and we are prepared even, as in many mining operations, to destroy one resource -the land -in order to get to another -the buried minerals.If the halcyon days are over, then our response has been to rediscover the principle of conservation and the recycling of land.(2001: 125) argues that, although many abandoned postindustrial sites may suffer from various forms of contamination and degradation, their location, often within cities, makes them too valuable to ignore.She further contends (Krinke, 2001: 125) that, since Western nations industrialised earlier and more relentlessly, their need to rehabilitate post-industrial sites may be more pressing than in the rest of the world.South Africa is probably at the developmental stage where the rehabilitation and redevelopment of abandoned post-industrial sites is becoming economically feasible and environmentally imperative.

Krinke
The term 'inventionist ecology', advocated by Turner (1994: 360), suggests that, in addition to the advantages and benefits of conserving natural resources, preserving natural ecosystems and restoring natural landscapes, it should be both possible and desirable when the occasion warrants to create new ecosystems and new landscapes.Both Turner (1994) and Jordan (1994)

THE BIOPHYSICAL AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF POST-INDUSTRIAL URBAN QUARRIES AND THEIR POTENTIAL TO BE RECLAIMED
Post-industrial and now derelict land can be described as having been so damaged by industrial activities that it now requires remediation and rehabilitation before it can become suitable for new land uses or a second life.This requirement often results in a pejorative view of the potential for re-use of abandoned quarries.It should be viewed against urbanites' need for recreational areas and the 'wilderness' and even more so in South Africa where the majority of its citizens are unlikely to afford access to wilderness areas for recreational purposes.
Lisberg Jensen and Oui (2008: 171) argue that, in the early industrial era, quarries were often enclaves of industrial land in a rural setting, whereas in the post-industrial era, these turned into urban wastelands, open for nature to recolonise.This type of landscape is difficult to categorise, being an 'in-betweenland', neither nature nor culture, perceived as ephemeral and inferior.
Quarries were originally mostly established as close as possible to their markets in urban areas, in order to minimise the transport costs of the raw materials that, despite their bulky nature, are of relatively low unit value.At the same time, they were established far enough away from the then urban areas to reduce potential land-use conflict where opposition to extractive operations would be intense (Bauer & Ford, 2014;Dal Sasso, Ottolino & Caliandro, 2012;Fulton, 1989).However, as urban sprawl encircles quarries, their proximity to populated areas leads them to now be considered urban land uses.Consequently, the mining permit holders or the landowners have to confront challenging landuse, environmental, aesthetical and community relations issues; these factors sometimes result in the unplanned and often premature abandonment of the quarry (Bauer & Ford, 2014).
Quarrying disturbs the land and, in the process, affects the balance of the environment's natural systems, e.g., land forms are altered, drainage patterns are disrupted, soil systems are destroyed, and habitats removed (Fulton, 1989).Quarrying also upsets the landscape's cultural balance: "…the land's aesthetic value is changed and continual or multifunctional land-use is placed under risk" (Fulton, 1989: 4).
The potential of post-industrial quarries for reclamation is determined by many factors, of which perhaps the most important are the physical properties of the quarry, its size, depth, the slope and stability of the excavated sides and its relation to the water

Post-industrial quarries as heritage sites
Post-industrial quarries constitute a part of our built environment heritage.The minerals that were extracted from these sites (clay for bricks, and sand and stone for concrete) are essential materials used in our built heritage.
In addition to structures, buildings and equipment, the South African National Heritage Resources Act (Act 25 of 1999) (RSA, 1999) also classifies cultural landscapes (therefore also post-industrial quarries) of 60 years and older as heritage resources and requires of landowners or developers to obtain a permit from the relevant heritage resources authorities before any alterations or demolitions may be undertaken.

The Nizhny Tagil International Charter on industrial heritage conservation
In order to give guidance in dealing with post-industrial heritage sites, the Nizhny Tagil Charter was adopted as the international standard for the study, documentation, conservation and interpretation of industrial

Definition of industrial heritage
Industrial It should, however, be noted that, in order to minimize the potential environmental impacts of mine closure and rehabilitation, planning for closure should bear in mind possible new future land uses, and approval by all responsible Departments should be obtained.
It is believed that the highlighted text above aligns, to a large extent, the rehabilitation and re-use of post-industrial urban quarries with the goals of the SPLUMA and associated local SDFs.However, in terms of the Heritage Resources Act (Act 25 of 1999) (RSA, 1999), which classifies a post-industrial quarry (a cultural artefact) older than 60 years as a heritage resource, any proposed alterations still require heritagerelated permission before any work on the quarry can be undertaken.
In terms of funding any required rehabilitation or reclamation, financial provision for the remediation of environmental damage is made under Section 41(1) of the MPRDA (RSA, 2002): An applicant for a prospecting right, mining right or mining permit must, before the Minister approves the environmental management plan or environmental management programme in terms of section 39(4), make the prescribed financial provision for the rehabilitation or management of negative environmental impacts.
Similar requirements for funding rehabilitation are stated under Clauses 24P( 1) and ( 10) of Chapter 5 of the NEMA (RSA, 1998b).
It is argued, in this instance, that, if proper forward planning to remediate the environmental impacts of the mine after closure is made in the mining permit application, and this includes the establishment of a future natural or wilderness area, the relevant approving authorities could prescribe that the financial provisions be utilised to enable such a second life for the mine.
It should also be noted that, in order to transform derelict land (e.g., abandoned post-industrial urban quarries) and land previously used for mining to, among others, recreational use, is deemed to be a listed activity in terms of the amended lists contained in Regulation R660 (RSA, 2008a) (Humby, 2015;Pienaar, 2013;Swart, 2003).Prior to this, mining licence holders were not required to prepare and submit any form of environmental management programme for the operational and closure phases of the mine.Mining licence holders or landowners often left their abandoned mining areas unrehabilitated after mining ceased.This lack of enforcing legislation has led to a large number of abandoned post-industrial quarries within South African urban areas.
In these instances, and where the landowner cannot be held liable, alternative funding models will have to be found to enable rehabilitation and reclamation, since it is likely that the establishment and operational costs of new urban 'wilderness' areas at post-industrial quarries will not be able to be sufficiently funded by charging entrance and use fees.
In  , 1997).In terms of the NWA, the Institutional Oversight has to ensure, among others, an enabling environment for the establishment, development and financing of local and regional institutions for water resources management.

CASE STUDIES OF RECLAIMED POST-INDUSTRIAL URBAN QUARRIES
Post-industrial urban quarries have historically been reclaimed in many countries.Martin and Berlin (2012b: 20)  • The Chambers Creek reclaimed gravel quarry near Tacoma, Washington, has been redeveloped into the Chambers Bay Golf course (site of the 2015 US Open) and boasts two public parks and interconnecting trails.
Five additional case studies, two in South Africa and three in Curitiba, Brazil, are examined in more detail to determine whether post-industrial urban quarries can satisfy the need of urbanites for places of outdoor recreation and even a new urban wilderness.
In South Africa, the case study that is probably the best known is the residential and recreational marina development in the reclaimed stone quarry at the Cape Town Waterfront.Excavated for rock to build the harbour's docks and breakwater from the late 19 th century and then used as a fuel tank farm since 1914 (Birkby, 1998), it was rehabilitated in the late 1980s and flooded in 1995 to make way for high-end residential marina and hotel developments (see Figure 1).

Bosque Zaninelli
This former stone quarry was declared a forest reserve in 1992 and also houses the Unilivre (the Free University of the Environment).
Apart from the Unilivre buildings (built from sustainable materials, mainly timber), the natural environment has been encouraged to re-establish in the reserve, now offering pathways, an ephemeral waterfall and a stream that drains the water collecting in the pond at the bottom of the original quarry excavations (see Figures 5  and 6).

Parque das Pedreiras
This park, named after the Brazilian poet and writer Pedreira Paulo Leminsky, was established in 1992 in the abandoned João Gava municipal stone quarry.Featuring an open-air seating area accommodating 60 000 people, with a stage utilising the vertical excavated rock face as backdrop, this facility is one of Curitiba's most popular cultural destinations and is used for musical events and religious gatherings.The park also houses the Ópera de Arame (The Wire Opera House), an iconic Curitiba landmark designed by architect Domingos Bongestabs (see Figure 7).

Parque Tanguá
This natural park was opened in 1996 on a site that was previously mined for stone from two adjoining quarries.After the quarrying was abandoned, the City developed the park with various facilities, including a lookout point over the quarry lake (see Figure 8); various hiking, jogging and cycling pathways; a coffee shop, and a jetty for boating.The two quarries are linked with a tunnel that now serves to drain excess ground and surface water.The park forms part of the Barigui River catchment and, although the water quality is currently being addressed as part of the river system revitalization project, it is still considered acceptable for recreational activities such as boating and canoeing (see Figures 8 and 9) (Biocidade, s.a.: online).
In all three of the Curitiba case studies, it can be observed that local vegetation has been allowed to establish naturally, the quarry excavations have filled with ground and surface water, in the process promoting new aquatic ecosystems, and urban 'man-made wildernesses' have now emerged.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The need of urbanites to have access, for outdoor recreational purposes, to parks, natural areas and the 'wilderness' has been well documented.It has become difficult for urbanites to satisfy this need in places that are considered 'untainted' or 'natural wilderness', mainly due to distances they have to travel, their ability to do so and, more importantly, to find places that can still be defined as 'wilderness', based on the perceptions held at the end of the 19 th century.From the literature survey, it is clear that human beings, specifically urbanites, have to re-evaluate their concept of wilderness; 'untainted wilderness' is at best a fallacy since, as Cronon (1996a) and Olwig (1996) argue, wilderness is a human construct and the natural values that human beings allocate to their environment do not originate from the physical nature, but from society.Reclaimed urban post-industrial quarries have the potential to become our cities' parks, recreational spaces, 'nature' areas and often offer the only opportunity for urbanites to experience the 'wilderness'.An analysis of the literature on this topic and case studies investigated has shown that post-industrial urban quarries' biophysical and socio-economic attributes can lend them to be reclaimed as enclaves of 'nature' and 'wilderness' in urban settings; this could be described as transformative resilience, i.e., the ability to regenerate a collapsed natural or social system (Chapin et al., cited in Peres, Barker & Du Plessis, 2015: 40).
The wide and often overlapping or unclear array of South African Acts, ordinances, by-laws and other legislative instruments that regulate spatial planning and land-use change in South Africa currently creates confusion.Recent legislation such as the SPLUMA (Act 16 of 2013) (RSA, 2013) is, however, aimed at aligning these legislative processes and clarifying where responsibilities lie.Allen (2012: 159) refers to postindustrial urban quarries as unique opportunities; the evolution and recasting of their spatial condition offer the possibility of space, experience and integration with ecological process hitherto rarely appreciated: "In dereliction they then present a nascent order not devoid of constraint, but providing a robust and thus actively adaptable system…" (Allen 2012: 158).This robustness and adaptability provide the best opportunity for exciting and innovative re-use of sites such as post-industrial urban quarries.
Once we believe we know what nature ought to look like -once our vision of its ideal form becomes a moral or cultural imperative -we can remake it so completely that we become altogether indifferent or even hostile toward its prior condition.Taken far enough, the result can be a landscape in which nature and artifice, despite their apparent symbolic opposition, become indistinguishable because they finally merge into one another (Cronon, 1996b: 40).

CONCLUSIONS
In addressing the three objectives of this article, first, to examine the concept of wilderness in an urbanised world, it has been shown that wilderness is a human construct and as such should be able to be redefined in a new paradigm that reflects expanding urbanism and decreasing 'natural wilderness' areas, while still recognising our need for access to 'natural' and 'wilderness areas'.
Secondly, due to their biophysical and socio-economic nature, postindustrial urban quarries are well placed to be reclaimed as sites where our need for outdoor recreation spaces, nature and wilderness, albeit man-made, can be fulfilled.The latent potential of such degraded and abandoned urban sites to regenerate natural and social systems and, in the process, enhance the resilience of cities cannot be overlooked (Peres et al., 2015: 40).
Thirdly, although the legislative processes that must be followed to decommission, rehabilitate, change the land-use, rezone and redevelop post-industrial urban quarries in South Africa can be considered overly complex and confusing, they do make provisions to attain the full second life potential of our postindustrial urban quarries.
Post-industrial urban quarries, therefore, have the potential to transition from landscapes of production of sand, clay and gravel, to landscapes where natural and societal values can be consumed by the urban dwellers and urban resilience regenerated.

:
Buitelugontspanning, postindustriële stedelike terreine, steengroewe, verlate land, wetlike raamwerke, wildernis heritage by The International Committee for the Conservation of the Industrial Heritage (TICCIH) under the banner of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) in Nizhny Tagil, Russia, in 2003.The following sections taken from the Charter give an indication of what constitutes industrial heritage and under what conditions should conservation, adaptation and re-use of a post-industrial site, specifically with regard to post-industrial quarry sites, be considered.
Büchner's proposals (illustrated in Figure4and cited inLabuschagne,  2013: 72)  point to the Rosema and Klaver quarry's latent potential to impart social (recreational) and ecological resilience to the City of Tshwane.It is notable that, in the Brazilian city of Curitiba, three of the five major urban parks presented were developed in reclaimed post-industrial quarries during the term of the then mayor Jaime Lerner, an architect and urban designer who is well known for the host of social, ecological, and urban reforms implemented during his terms.The examples discussed, in this instance, resulted from the city's acquisition of the privately owned city's floodplains and disused quarries and then developing these into mostly 'natural' parks, resulting in Curitiba now ranking among the world leaders in per-capita park area(Welle, 2009: online).

Figure 1 :Figure 3 :
Figure 1: Cape Town residential waterfront development in a former quarry and later a fuel farm Source: Free Cities Guide, 2018: online

Figure 5 :
Figure 5: View onto the lake at the Bosque Zaninelli, Curitiba, Brazil Source: Image by author

Figure 8 :
Figure 8: View onto the lake at the Parque Tanguá, with the lookout to the top right, Curitiba, Brazil Source: Image by author

or to a land use which conforms to the generally accepted principle of sustainable development
(author's bold text).