Advancing Interpretive Mapping as a Co-Design Method for Post-Mining Transition: Conditional Reasoning, Development Sequencing, and Mutual Understanding

Mine closure extends beyond individual sites as a regional transition issue, with implications for community livelihoods and long-term wellbeing. Yet community input is often gathered separately from technical decision-making, limiting shared spatial negotiation around post-mining futures. Grounded in landscape urbanism, interpretive mapping has long been used to represent layered spatial knowledge. This study applies that capacity through an exploratory co-design workshop to examine how expert knowledge and community priorities can be brought together amid the staged coal phase-out in Australia’s Latrobe Valley. Through individual assessment, collective mapping, and discussion, participants prioritised three proposals that consolidated key concerns: wetland recovery, industrial heritage, and biodiversity rehabilitation. Within this process, participants positioned the proposals in specific locations and timeframes, while final reassessment showed that views on proposal value remained varied after negotiation. The study advances interpretive mapping beyond knowledge layering and visualisation, translating diverse knowledge and deliberation into shared judgement about post-mining futures. It also exposes a critical implementation gap: prioritised proposals are difficult to advance without governance clarity, technical feasibility, and funding pathways. The paper argues that accessible co-design must be embedded within an adaptive transition framework aligning rehabilitation decisions with regional development agendas, so design proposals can move toward staged delivery.