Insight into your data through cutting edge data science

Case Study | Using Data Science in MiningSaving & managing water resources effectively through data science

The Water Information Management System (WIMS) Application

Summary

Company: IndependentIndustry: MiningContact: Koos VivierJob role: Independent hydro-geologist specialising in ground, mine and dewatering managementChallenge: Conflicts over water usage due to a lack of underground water data.Solution: WIMS ApplicationResult: A unified system to show exact usage data and resolve conflicts.

WIMS does for your water data what Pastel does for your financials. In ten years’ time the correct data will still be available instantly

It does for a body of water what an MRI scanner does for the human body: It unveils insight into the data!

The story of underground water

Surplus water above ground is usually in a concentrated form and col-lects at places like dams or rivers, but underground water is different in the sense that it is distributed all over. Data collection to monitor underground water is extremely important.

A conflict that lasted nearly two decades

For more than 15 years farmers and mines in a region in the Northern Cape were in ongoing conflict with each other regarding underground water usage. There wasn’t a way to determine which party was using too much of this resource. Each party was collecting their own data and was working from their own database systems. To make sense from each rainfall catchment area was extremely difficult too. There was no unified system available to determine the problem.

The conflict is now managed in such a way that the parties understand the limit of impact much better and the fact that all water and land users as well as climate changes contributed to changes in water resources.

They needed a solution that could integrate all the available systems and data.

And ITE’s WIMS solution was the answer!

The solution

The WIMS system collected data including, but not limited to, individual rainfall data captured, water levels in some areas (since 1950), the locations of more than 4600 boreholes and the data from 67 rainfall stations. Only once they integrated all the available data systems, and applied analytics to these complex data sets, were they able to conclude that the problem was two-fold.

Firstly, there was a problem with recharge from rainfall in most of the areas. Secondly, there was invader alien vegetation in the form of bush encroachment that dried out the soil and reduced recharge.

There was no way we could have figured this out if it was not for the WIMS system locked in behind it. The data was over-whelming and it would not have been possible to relate this whole suite of complex data to a single system like Excel although it was possible to export data reports to Excel.

In this project, WIMS did more than just provide the right data in one place. There was a lot of fake news and negative publicity that did a lot of damage to the mines and there was a lot of animosity between the parties involved. WIMS helped bring clarity to the chaos to defuse the situation and restore trust between farmers and mines. All this just, because the correct data was available. This was invaluable.

WIMS changed ground and mining water management forever!

With WIMS we were able to determine what is happening to the water dynamics, start to filter the quality of the data and build in checks. WIMS has the ability to perform quality assurance and quality checks on the data too.

It can relate the correct data to the rainfall stations regarding water levels and water quality. Suddenly we were able to see so much more. It does for a body of water what an MRI scanner does for the human body. It unveils all!

WIMS is compatible with Excel and can link to other Scada systems. Mines directly link dewatering flow rates and water levels from Skoda systems. WIMS does not only analyze the data, but also does a quality check of the data.

The quality of the data reporting resulted in a direct reduction of cost for the business. In some cases it was about much more than direct cost saving to the company.

The value of WIMS in Rands (Dollar)

Every groundwater user has to do monitoring, it is legislated. .If you do not keep your data, you have lost the value of it. That’s why you have to add your data into a formalised database that can be used to inter-pret and interrogate the data.

WIMS does for your water data what Sage Pastel (your financial soft-ware) does for your financials. In ten years’ time the correct data will still be available instantly.

A general chemical analysis on a single borehole could cost between $50 and $100. Every mine, and some farmers, do hundreds of these analyses. If this data is not available on a formalised, accessible data-base it is impossible to combine and interpret the data from 50 different versions of source data. The cost savings mines and farmers experi-enced as a result of WIMS are mind-blowing.

What is WIMS?

The next generation in affordable, cloud-based groundwater information management systems designed to consolidate and securely store data, improve data management and accelerate hydrogeo project workflow!

About ITE

Integrity Engineering (ITE) is a software engineering company that uses data science to turn data complexities into expert insights that add value, save money and protect valuable resources.

We do this by engineering a unique software solution that distills data scientifically and amplifies the right data in the right sequence. The end result? The ability to make insightful, resourceful decisions that will benefit your company’s future.

ffaul@iteonline.co.za

www.iteonline.co.za