Ground Deformation Monitoring

Sensar's demonstration product shows a retrospective analysis of a tailings dam in Australia was performed. On the 9th of March, 2018, an incident occurred. A part of the dam of the Northern pond collapsed, releasing slurry into the Southern facility. Fortunately, there were not any injuries or pollution associated with the event. It did, however, cause the operations to be suspended temporarily and led to a required reconstruction of the tailings dam.

In the satellite data, a failure precursor was detected. The dam showed a strong acceleration in subsidence rate, approximately 3 months before the failure occurred. Using satellite data for monitoring displacements is a strong tool for predictive maintenance and risk reduction. Based on this product, local inspections and/or intervention can been planned, preventing potentially disastrous events.