Public remotely sensed data raise concerns about history of failed Jagersfontein dam

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dc.article.end-page4962
dc.article.start-page4953
dc.contributor.authorTorres-Cruz, L.A.
dc.contributor.authorO'Donovan, C.
dc.date.accessioned2023-09-15T10:20:16Z
dc.date.available2023-09-15T10:20:16Z
dc.date.issued2023-04-05
dc.descriptionArticle
dc.description.abstractA mine waste deposit known as a tailings dam recently failed in the town of Jagersfontein, South Africa. The failure occurred amidst global concern about the safety record of these structures. Herein we use public remotely sensed data to gain insights into the construction history of the dam. The data suggest a construction sequence that is inconsistent with sound tailings management practices: asymmetric deposition, erosion gullies, large ponds and absence of beaches. These observations highlight the criticality of adhering to good construction practices and the potential of public data to monitor such adherence. Additionally, we present commercially available very high resolution satellite images to illustrate some of the immediate consequences of the failure.
dc.description.librarianPM2023
dc.description.sponsorshipWe gratefully acknowledge: (a) support from the Education and Research Program of Planet Labs, (b) an MSc scholarship for the second author from Fraser Alexander (Pty) Ltd, and (c) insightful discussions with Abideen Owolabi, James Dutchman, John Wates and Yashay Narainsamy. An earlier version of Fig. S2 was shared in LinkedIn on 12 September 2022 to assist the work of first responders.
dc.facultyFaculty of the Engineering and the Built Environment
dc.identifier.citationTorres-Cruz, L.A. and O'Donovan, C. 2023. Public remotely sensed data raise concerns about history of failed Jagersfontein dam. Scientific Reports 13 (1), pp.4953-4963.
dc.identifier.issn2045-2322
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/35916
dc.language.isoen
dc.orcid.idhttp://orcid.org/0000-0001-8482-0070
dc.publisherSpringer Nature
dc.rightsThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http:// creat iveco mmons. org/ licen ses/ by/4. 0/.
dc.schoolSchool of Civil and Environmental Engineering
dc.titlePublic remotely sensed data raise concerns about history of failed Jagersfontein dam
dc.typeArticle
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