Improvement of the Monitoring Methodology Using Space Images in the Tasks of Assessing Tailings Dam Subsidence

Abstract. Maintaining the operational strength of containment dams and hydraulic structures, while increasing the storage capacity of existing TSFs, is a relevant task to ensure the stability and environmental safety of areas located near the tailings storage facilities.
During the operation and reclamation of hydraulically deposited mining and technical masses (hydraulic dumps and tailings storage facilities), significant importance is attached to issues related to geomechanical processes, which largely determine the stability and environmental safety of the structure, its capacity, and the direction of its further use. Therefore, methodologies are being developed for the operation of TSFs and the improvement of their monitoring, including the creation of a scientific and technical base.
Despite the improvement of methods for assessing and calculating stability, the emergence of powerful computing technologies and corresponding software, as well as the expansion of controlled parameters of TSFs, the monitoring and management of the stability of tailings dams remains one of the most pressing problems of industrial hydraulic engineering.
This paper examines the issues of improving the monitoring of TSF dams of the Almalyk Mining and Metallurgical Combine Concentration Plant (MCC). The purpose of the research is to increase the operational safety and predict the condition of the containment dams of TSFs based on the use of satellite radar interferometry (InSAR) and the improvement of the methodology for instrumental mine surveying observations to prevent hazardous deformations.
Sentinel-1 synthetic aperture radar data of open access provided by the European Space Agency, as well as mine surveying data of the territory, were selected as the initial data for the research.