Sensor fusion – An new approach towards a digital twin in geoscience and post-mining

Geomonitoring of mining processes is a very current topic. Geomonitoring uses modern surface and subsurface methods observing the Earth’s surface. “Digital Twin” is a research project whose main goal is to use methods to detect surface and subsurface trends in post-mining areas and relate them to environment processes (e.g. climate changes). An important aspect it to distinguish between environment and artificial/mining influences and effects. The research area of this project is the closed Prosper-Haniel coal mine. The project uses modern research methods and instruments ranging from modelling the geological subsurface in order to visualize the model in three-dimensional space. Through a spatiotemporal analysis of available satellite data and verify the results, in-situ mapping using a mobile GIS application or copter flights with multispectral and thermal sensors are deployed. Each of the sensors play an important role in project “Digital Twin”, but collaboration and combination of different domains allows a broader view of the problems of environmental and geoscientific processes.