Historical Moisture Content Analysis for Ash Dam Facility in South Africa

This article articulates a three-year moisture content analysis carried out at the Duvha Ash Dam Facility to identify locations with increasing moisture content values using satellite technology. An increase in moisture content values can be an indicator of failed drainage. For this reason, a historical analysis helps identify locations that have suffered from high moisture content, and this can be validated against historical data held regarding the condition of the ash dam facility. In terms of methodology, the researchers using Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) measured soil moisture. The SMAP mission is an orbiting observatory that measures the amount of water in the surface soil everywhere on Earth. Soil moisture is an important measurement for weather forecasting, failed drainage, drought and flood predictions. The researchers used SMAP radiometers to measure radiation data to calculate water content. The findings were that soil moisture on the ash dam facility stands at 0.09 cm3/cm3. In addition, soil moisture is highest during the summer months at the ash dam facility. During the winter months the soil moisture is low. This makes monitoring of soil moisture generally during the summer months critical. In conclusion SMAP has the advantage of effectively covering large spatial areas at low cost, a regular acquisition of measures over time, and the availability of large historical data archives to perform retrospective studies. However, this technology is yet to be adopted by the South African industry.