Projects
Some recent projects worked on individually and in collaboration with other companies include:
Social Impact Assessment and Strategic Resettlement Planning for the Ngonye Falls Hydroelectric Scheme. Zambia, November 2019
A power utility company aimed to establish a 45 MW run-of-river hydropower power scheme on the Ngonye Falls section of the Zambezi River in Zambia. The initial design of the scheme involved creating a weir on the left bank as well as inside the left channel of the braided channel-island system above the Ngonye Falls, with significant work having been undertaken for the ESIA (including the SIA and RCAP) under this scheme. Work undertaken included (1) the review of the impact area/area of influence, (2) additional fieldwork, (3) amendment of the Draft SIA, (4) resettlement planning, and (5) additional stakeholder engagement, (6) a high-level assessment of the likely livelihood impact and restoration measures that would need to be implemented in line with IFC PS5 Principles of best practice, leading to a preliminary Eligibility Framework and associated Entitlement Matrix being compiled towards an updated Resettlement Policy Framework being completed.
Multispectral survey of pome orchards. South Africa, 2020
Our low cost La Quinta multispectral camera was used to acquire imagery for use in updating and ongoing monitoring of both Citrus and Avocado orchards. Farms totalling approx. 300ha in size were surveyed within a day and the results processed by agricultural experts. The results of the survey were then conveyed to the farmer in the form of visual reports with statistics as part of an ongoing monitoring program.
Vigour Analysis and Vineyard Monitoring: Abingdon Wine Estate, KwaZulu Natal South Africa, 2022
Our low cost La Quinta multispectral camera was used to acquire imagery for use in monitoring grape vigour from Veraison leading up to the harvest. Areas of different vigours within each block were mapped to assist with farm decision making during the harvest season.
Topographical survey for master farm plan and drainage design. South Africa, February 2020
A full topographic survey of a farm was undertaken to high accuracy specifications to utilise the digital terrain model (DTM) for drainage design. A comprehensive farm master plan was developed to assist the farm with all design and management aspects.
Oblique Imagery & GIS services: Municipality Valuations Consultants. South Africa, 2022.
Leading Property Valuation Consultants required advanced GIS analytics and household mapping services to be used for municipal property valuations. VNAV geospatial provided these services under tight deadlines for in excess of 160 000 properties.
Asset Survey & compensation computation, livelihood restoration and development plan. Madagascar, 2019
A mine company required a resettlement action plan to cover the main project components of the mine site. The scope of the resettlement was around 19 physically-displaced households and an unknown number of economically displaced households covering owners of arable farm parcels and grazing land. Work undertaken here involved assessing the existing land-use and agricultural livelihood potential of the area and computing an independent set of compensation values to those being proposed by the government DUP process. This involved a wide range of stakeholder engagement with various government departments and most of the project affected communities, as well as work of a purely technical nature. Information gathered was furthermore used towards compiling a livelihood restoration and development plan to offset or preferably improve on PAP livelihoods as a part of the RAP that will guide the project future social commitments.
Land Use Change Detection & Analysis. Zambia, 2019
A mining company required a detailed Land Use change analysis of a between two periods to show a change in the number of land uses affected by mine operations. The area of interest was approximately 510 000ha. Two multispectral satellite imagery datasets were obtained for analytical purposes - one from 2010 and the other from 2018. Various land use types (Farmland/Agriculture, Forestry/Trees, Grassland/Veld, and Water & Urban/Mine/Roads) were extracted from the imagery using semi-automated extraction techniques on various imagery bands composites to give a detailed land use map and detect change between the two-time frames. A detailed statistical analysis was then undertaken to quantify the change that had occurred and hence the effect of mining operations in the area.
Time-Series Analysis & Land Use Database for Environmental Monitoring, Development and Restoration Plans. Madagascar, 2020
A mining company in Madagascar aims to mine in the Ranobe site, located in the district of Toliara II, in the Atsimo Antsinana Region. A detailed “picture” of before, during and after mining operations showing land use and environmental characteristics of the approx. 500 000 ha area around the mine site was required. A time-series database showing land use change and environmental degradation over four time periods (1990, 2000, 2011, and 2019) was developed using multispectral satellite imagery datasets. Semi-automated extraction techniques on various imagery band composites were used to derive the data and used in change detection analysis. The 2019 dataset was further analysed in more detail in order to achieve a baseline land use status in which to compare all future land use and environmental changes. Detailed monitoring of the general area including a number of highly detailed monitoring sites has been proposed to continue throughout the duration of the mine's lifespan
Haul Road Assessment: Base Toliara. Madagascar, January 2021
Base Toliara committed to undertake an in-depth assessment of routing alternatives for the Project’s dedicated haul road. This was required in order to meet the regulatory requirements of International Best Practice (IBP) guidelines, policies, standards, and recommendations, in particular the requirements included in the International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Performance Standards (PS). Due to various challenges posed by the Covid-19 travel restrictions, site access was not possible. VNAV geospatial was therefore enlisted to assist the engineering and environmental teams by delivering a high-resolution land cover / land use classification of terrestrial areas within a 2km corridor of all the haul routes using modern and advanced remote sensing techniques. The study extracted 47 land use classes and was used as part of a weighted scoring system to determine the best haul route option based on environmental land use as well as engineering variables.
LiDAR Survey: Democratic Republic of Congo, June 2021
VNAV geospatial provided technical assistance and LiDAR processing services for data acquired with one of the first Zemuse L1 LiDAR systems operating in South Africa, which was mounted on the M300 drone. The project required high-quality imagery and LiDAR data for drainage system design covering approx. 9000Ha. The data was acquired over 7 days and the processing ran concurrently to the data acquisition while in the field. The size of the project saw in excess of 800GB of data collected under harsh conditions of rural Democratic Republic of Congo.
Disaster Management, Chemical Spill: Cornubia, South Africa, September 2021
Our La Quinta multispectral camera was used to acquire imagery and rapidly map and establish the extent of the damage of the riparian and surrounding environment areas caused by a chemical spill upstream of the river during the unrest action in July 2021. The approx. 1000ha area was acquired over 2 days and processed concurrently to provide high resolution imagery and NDVI indices showing accurate areas of damage to the system.