Although advanced analytics and AI tools are valuable, stakeholders on the ground are required to act on the insights such tools generate, whereby if risks occur – such as a severe rainstorm being forecast – the responsible parties need to rapidly implement mitigation measures, reports software company Insight Terra CEO Alistair Bovim.

Monitoring alone is insufficient, he adds, noting that any response to issues needs to be coordinated and documented.

“In heavy industries such as oil and gas, major incidents typically occur when multiple small failures align. Much like aviation accidents, disasters often result from a cascade of minor events rather than a single catastrophic trigger,” states Bovim.

By identifying small deviations and addressing then in real time, the “snowball effect” can be interrupted before it escalates further, he elaborates.

This philosophy underpins Insight Terra’s collaboration with software company Dassault Systèmes and its subsidiary GEOVIA, through which the development of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform originated.

Beyond sensors and analytics, the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, featuring Dassault Systèmes’ virtual twin technology, enables engineers to model and simulate tailings storage facility behaviour before construction starts, says GEOVIA ideas lab industry process expert director Francis Magisson.

“The objective is to consolidate real-time monitoring data with predictive analytics, geotechnical simulations and scenario modelling within a unified virtual twin environment,” states Bovim.

The 3DEXPERIENCE platform enables engineers to evaluate multiple design options and performance optimisation before breaking ground on a project, further connecting design, monitoring and operations data into a single source of truth.

As a result of the practical implementation of continuous monitoring with governance workflows, when an instrument triggers an alert – such as a piezometer showing a rising pore pressure – the platform enables rapid issue creation directly from that instrument reading, pre-filling all the relevant context, says Bovim.

“The issue will then get assigned to the right people, tracked through resolution and approved at the appropriate governance level, with every step being recorded with timestamps and attribution,” notes Magisson.

This closes a critical gap embodied in Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management Principle 7: mandating operators to design, implement and operate comprehensive monitoring systems to manage risks throughout the entire lifecycle of a tailings facility, he adds.

“It is not enough to have monitoring data, you need documented evidence that alerts were investigated, decisions were made by the right people and actions were completed,” explains Magisson.

When monitoring and governance workflows are integrated, operations move from reactive spreadsheet management to proactive, auditable stewardship – which, he says, accountability boards and regulators are demanding.

“This has involved advancing the concepts of the digital and virtual twin – enabling operators to model and simulate tailings dam behaviour before construction, during operation and under various stress conditions, including rainfall and climate impacts,” states Bovim.

These simulations, he elaborates, enable teams to define appropriate response actions in advance so that when a real-world event occurs, the required procedures are already established.

Being Proactive is Key

Under previous reporting models, Bovim explains that issues likely would have gone undetected, potentially taking months to appear later in a retrospective engineer’s report, at which point the root cause would have been “difficult, if not impossible” to determine.

Instead, using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, the risk is identified early, contained within a single zone and prevented from escalating, he highlights, adding that operations can thereafter resume in alignment with the approved plan.

“This illustrates how small procedural deviations, if undetected, can contribute to larger systemic risks,” says Bovim.

“In practical terms, monitoring data continuously updates the virtual twin, reflecting how the facility is actually behaving. Engineers can then simulate remediation strategies, evaluate different safety scenarios and test operational adjustments before implementing them in the real world,” he elaborates.

In addition, by using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform, stakeholders – including the accountable executive, the responsible tailings facility engineer, the engineer of record and site engineers – can collaborate within a shared system, operating from a single, consistent version of the truth.

In conclusion, Magisson says that transparency is not just about the data itself, but includes the processes behind it.

“When your monitoring data, design models, risk assessments and mitigation plans all live in a unified platform with built-in approval chains and complete audit trails, you’re demonstrating process integrity, not just data accuracy,” he concludes.