EVST13015 - Mining, Urban & Industrial Lands Rehabilitation

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit will cover essential knowledge of natural and impacted (mining, urban and industrial) landscape features and their management. You will gain a theoretical and practical understanding of landforms, biogeography, and the effects of natural and man-made impacts on the sustainability of local ecosystems. You will also learn how erosion control, vegetation surveys, modern techniques of rehabilitation, productive use of degraded land and rehabilitation success criteria are used to return disturbed landscapes into sustainable or productive ecosystems. You will gain practical experience through field trips to disturbed and rehabilitated sites. The emphasis will be on Central Queensland sites with links to broader Australian landscapes.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 3
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 2
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

Students must have completed 72 units of credit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School Compulsory Residential School
View Unit Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2025

Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Mixed Mode

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Practical and Written Assessment 40%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Online Test 30%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 100.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 5.88% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Email
Feedback
Students appreciated the detailed feedback on their assessment submissions and said it was helpful and informative.
Recommendation
Continue to provide a similar level of detailed feedback on assessments whenever possible.
Action Taken
Individualised assessment comments were provided to each student. Further detailed feedback was also offered to all students.
Source: In-person and SUTE
Feedback
Some students commented that they really enjoyed visits to industry, current and former mine sites, waste management facilities, and local NRM rehabilitation areas. Some other students felt the talks and conversations sometimes deviated from land rehabilitation to broader issues that were not as relevant to the unit.
Recommendation
Continue to include a variety of relevant site visits but ensure that the talks and tours focus specifically on land rehabilitation.
Action Taken
The residential school schedule was successfully updated for 2025. Talks and tours were tightly focused on the unit content.
Source: Personal reflection and SUTE
Feedback
Due to a scheduling conflict with one of the industry visits, the time available for field work was too short.
Recommendation
Field work location, timing and instructions, are currently being updated for 2025. Time spent on field work will be increased and further prioritised.
Action Taken
The residential school schedule was successfully updated for 2025. A closer field site was selected and the time for field work was doubled.
Source: SUTE
Feedback
Some students were not satisfied with the learning materials.
Recommendation
The unit is being updated for 2025.
Action Taken
The majority of the unit was successfully updated for the 2025 offering. Further enhancements are planned for 2026.
Source: Personal reflection and SUTE
Feedback
Weightings of the assessment need adjustment.
Recommendation
The weightings of the assessment have been reviewed and will likely be updated to increase emphasis on the practical component and to reduce the weighting of the online test.
Action Taken
The unit update was approved and implemented during 2025. The weighting of the online test was reduced, and the weightings of the practical and research-based tasks were increased.
Source: In-person feedback
Feedback
Some students commented that visiting the open cut coal mine to see how land is rehabilitated after mining, and talking to practitioners about progressive rehabilitation and closure planning, was insightful and complementary to the online learning resources and associated assessment item.
Recommendation
Continue to include visits to mine site rehabilitation whenever possible. Continue to include up to date information about Progressive Rehabilitation and Closure Planning, including the latest technical advice from the Office of the Queensland Mine Rehabilitation Commissioner.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: SUTE Unit Feedback – Areas to Improve
Feedback
One student indicated that some of the video resources could be improved.
Recommendation
Review the few remaining older videos and update accordingly.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: In-person feedback and personal observations
Feedback
The majority of students seemed to enjoy conducting field work, specifically, monitoring to assess landscape function and revegetation success. They also appeared to appreciate hearing from volunteers, industry, and government personnel involved in land rehabilitation and monitoring.
Recommendation
Continue to offer students the opportunity to conduct hands on tasks, such as sampling, monitoring and assessment. Continue to engage industry, government, and local restoration practitioners to give regionally relevant talks.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student performance data and email communication
Feedback
Some students found research, data interpretation, and analysis more challenging than others.
Recommendation
Increase communication to students about the importance of being prepared, reading through all assessment materials, and seeking help through the appropriate channels as early in the term as possible. Continue to remind students about the research guides, videos, and other support resources available via the university library. Continue to set aside time during the residential school to assist students with processing the collected data.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Describe key features of the biogeographic landscape
  2. Discuss the impacts of mining, urbanisation, industrial development and tree clearing activities on the sustainability of Australian landscapes
  3. Conduct land and vegetation surveys, simulate erosion events and describe disturbed land rehabilitation techniques
  4. Analyse the techniques used in the rehabilitation of degraded Australian landscapes
  5. Design a protocol for rehabilitation and/or sustainable management of a disturbed landscape
  6. Assess the criteria used to determine cost effectiveness and success of rehabilitation processes.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Practical and Written Assessment • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Online Test • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 - Communication • •
2 - Problem Solving • • •
3 - Critical Thinking • • • • • •
4 - Information Literacy • •
5 - Team Work •
6 - Information Technology Competence • •
7 - Cross Cultural Competence • • •
8 - Ethical practice • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Introductory Level
• Intermediate Level
• Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10