Changes to the ground surface, securing underground cavities – topics that also play an important role in post-mining and which RAG Aktiengesellschaft, based in Herne (Germany), is taking on. For this purpose, they have been working with geoinformation technology (GIS) for 25 years. Starting as a system for specialists, the geoinformation system (GIS) has developed into an indispensable component of many business processes. The handling of mining subsidence damage, facilities management, risk management, former mining operations, and monitoring of the ground surface for active mining, as well as post-mining operations – all of these activities would no longer be possible without GIS.
Data collection in the millimetre range using sensors on satellites, aeroplanes, multicopters or on the ground provide the basis for geospatial analyses at the limits of what is technically feasible. This is the only way that today’s regulatory obligations and incidental provisions can be complied with.
Extensive digitalisation work has also led to the mining activities of the last 150 years in the Ruhr, Saar and Ibbenbüren territories being digitally documented in geoarchives and land registries, and therefore means that this information is always available in a flexible format for analysis and cartographic representations. (RAG/Si.)
