Four small (surface area: 0.4-2.3 ha), but relatively deep (max. depth: 6.5-7.8 111) man made reservoirs, created between 1979 and 1988 on recultivatccl waste heap of former sulphur mine in Machów (N 50°31'35": E 21°37'51")_ were studied in summer and autumn 2003. In autumn one lake - Kacze was not mixed down to the bottom, which could point to its meromixis. The other lakes were found to be dimictic. In all the lakes high values of total hardness, conductivity, chlorides, sulphides and low amounts 01· total phosphorus and nitrogen were found. Both phytoplankton and hydrornacrophyte communities were poorly developed. Considerable amounts or green-yellow bacteria were also noted in plankton The water chemistry as well as quantity and quality of plant communities reflect the chemical composition of loam soils which constitute the waste heap.

Suitable doses and forms of mineral fertilizers play a significant role in soil-less reclamation of mining wastes. It concerns especially nitrogen, because in this case its mineral and organic forms play a definite role. The relationship between each form is affected by a petrographic and mineral composition, weathering processes of waste material on the waste heaps, and also chemical composition and relationship between the main components, such as calcium, magnesium, sodium and potassium. Very important are also tree and shrub species introduced on the heaps, as different species can be characterized by individual nutrient requirements. The investigations showed that the period of first 2-3 years determines the success of interventions in biological reclamation. This refers mostly to nitrogen. Phosphoric fertilization plays an important role in later period, while potassium fertilization is not necessary, because waste material contains considerable quantities of total, and also of exchangeable and dissolvable in water potassium.

Based on the analysis of the LIDAR terrain Digital Elevation Model (DEM), traces of opencast and underground mining of iron ore mining were located and classified. They occur in the zone of ore-bearing deposits outcropping on the north-eastern and north-western bounds of the Holy Cross Mountains. The DEM of an area covered by thirty-six (36) standard sheets of the Detailed Geological Map of Poland on a scale of 1:50,000 was thoroughly explored with remote sensing standards. Four types of ore recovery shafts with accompanying waste heaps were classified. The acquired data on the extent of former mining areas, covered with varying shafts and barren rock heaps could make a basis for distinguishing, according to historical data and in cooperation with archaeologists, the historical development stages of today’s steel industry. According to general knowledge, the iron industry in Europe instigate dates from the Roman times, in the Ist century BC to the IVth century AD, throughout the earlier and the late medieval times, up to the most recent the 1970ties. The usefulness of the LIDAR method has already been amazingly confirmed in archaeological researches worldwide. Many discoveries of ling forgotten, even large entities resulting from human activities in Asia and Central America especially were discovered owed to the LIDAR DEM. Also, traces of human settlements from various historical periods were discovered that way in Poland. The applicability of DEM based on LIDAR data is, in geological studies of surficial geodynamic processes and in geological mapping in Poland, rather contested.