Aligning Post-Mining and Post-Quarrying Land-Use Decisions with Spatial Planning: The Case of Western Macedonia, Greece

Spatial planning plays a key role in sustainable resource management, particularly in mining and quarrying areas where post-extractive land-use decisions must balance environmental, regulatory, and social considerations. Taking Western Macedonia, Greece, as a case study, the objective of this research is to support sustainable regional development transition by proposing a decision-support framework for post-mining land-use planning that integrates spatial planning objectives, stakeholder perspectives, and land-use governance. The proposed methodology combines complementary decision-support tools to evaluate and prioritize alternative post-mining land uses. Integration Definition for Function Modelling is used to structure and visualize the decision-making process. Strengths–Weaknesses–Opportunities–Threats analysis identifies site-specific internal and external factors, the Analytic Hierarchy Process ranks land-use alternatives based on weighted evaluation criteria, and Force Field Analysis assesses the driving and restraining forces affecting the practical implementation of each option. This integrated framework supports both the technical assessment of alternatives and the evaluation of implementation feasibility. The results indicate a significant divergence between expert-based rankings and stakeholder preferences. Although the Analytic Hierarchy Process identifies recreation parks for quarries and waste-to-energy facilities for mines as the most suitable technical options, Force Field Analysis reveals important barriers related to social acceptance and economic feasibility. The findings demonstrate that technically optimal land uses may not always be socially or institutionally feasible. Therefore, post-mining land-use planning should adopt integrated, transparent, and participatory approaches that combine technical evaluation with stakeholder engagement to achieve sustainable and implementable outcomes.