Mine Watch

Inspiration

We were looking for the kind of niche problems most people never hear about. We definitely didn't expect to land on mining. But the more we looked, the more we saw a perfect storm: the pressure of climate change colliding with poor regulatory management. Hidden in that chaos was an opportunity. Digging into government data solidified our hunch, and now we’re building a solution to tackle these critical, overlooked problems.

Here's a quote from an official source:

"The lack of reporting and meaningful information on contaminated sites, including large abandoned mines, means that the Government of Canada, decision makers, and Canadians do not have a clear picture of the environmental and financial effects of these contaminated sites."

source: https://www.oag-bvg.gc.ca/internet/English/parl_cesd_202404_01_e_44468.html

What MineWatch does

Our platform aggregates real-time sensor data from mining sites to generate comprehensive environmental status reports. By analyzing key metrics—such as water acidity, soil contaminants, and air quality—the system calculates a dynamic Ecological Risk Index. This score quantifies the environmental impact on the site, providing government officials and decision-makers with high-fidelity data and a clear, actionable picture of ecological health to prioritize restoration efforts.

Key Features:

Interactive map with mine searching
Pinpoints of mine locations colour coded based on risk level
Pinpoints of mines based on density in a region
Real-time monitoring: Ingests live telemetry data from mining sites to track critical environmental markers such as soil, water and air pollution resulting from mining.
Risk scoring: Algorithms process raw sensor readings to assign a standardized "Ecological Risk Index" (0-100), instantly signifying the severity of environmental degradation.
Restorations: Mines that have been restored by the government and workers are updated on the site
Forecasts: Outputs predictions of soil, water and air pollution levels one year into the future, assuming no restoration action has been taken.
Actionable reporting: Transforms complex data into clear, visual dashboards, empowering governments and stakeholders to make evidence-based decisions on site management and restoration.
Graphs visualizing the updates over time on the environmental metrics (soil, water and air pollution levels)
Dark and Light mode for accessibility

How we built it

With our friends from Mapbox GL, we are able to get an accurate mapping of the world and with the available data from the Canadian Government on Mines:https://osdp-psdo.canada.ca/dp/en/search/metadata/NRCAN-FGP-1-330ec960-cc52-47d9-840b-d93470347ab4. Made this project possible. We had used React to handle the development of the frontend.

While physical sensor integration was outside the scope of this 24-hour hackathon, we focused on proving the viability of our software architecture. We generated a synthetic data stream based on Kaggle datasets to mimic edge-device telemetry. This approach demonstrated that our platform effectively aggregates, analyzes, and reports data, regardless of the hardware source.

Some challenges we ran into

Connecting the data between map and dashboard
Merging components built by different team members required careful coordination to ensure the map and dashboard communicated seamlessly. (aka Git merge conflicts 😰)
Synchronizing the live sensor feed was a challenge, as that single data source had to update the map, the dashboard, and the graphs in real-time without lagging.
Mapbox was something completely new to us and we had to read many pages of documentation just to even get the whole map working!
Mapping government data and managing null values

On the brighter side, we were able to navigate through these challenges by deep-diving into documentation, leaning on the guidance of mentors, and relying on the incredible collaboration of our super awesome teammates 😁.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We acknowledged a problem that is usually ignored (mining site degradation) and proved it is a hidden opportunity for tech intervention. Beyond the concept, we are proud of the execution. In only 24 hours of hacking, we were able to add useful features such as customizable searches to limit to Canadian mines, predictions for future risk calculations, graphing visualizations and a lot more!

We are proud to have built a fully functional tool that transforms how decision makers monitor and mitigate the environmental impact of mining.

What we learned

How to deploy our apps and connect them to a domain
How to use Mapbox gl for any map-related projects (this includes markers, search feature, and customized search).
Using React to create fast and good UI.
Hackathons give u free food 🤭.

What's next for Mine Watch

Integrate physical sensors to replace simulated data streams
Connect the sensors with the dashboard and update the UI to be better suited for data analysis and government officials to look into the current ongoing environmental damages on the surrounding area.
Deploy drones equipped with Computer Vision to identify risks like oil spills and fires.
Establish a human verification system to confirm automated alerts and guide decision-making.