Innovation Anthology #461:
Syncrude is one of Alberta’s oil sands companies that is looking forward to the release of a new handbook on boreal hydrology.
Rob Vassov is a vegetation researcher with Syncrude.
As he explains, now it is industry’s turn to take years of scientific research and put it into practice when restoring mined landscapes.
ROB VASSOV: So as we go forward and we design our closure plans, we’re able to take advantage of these ideas in our modeling of ground water and surface water to help us design our landscapes.
And this research gives us the insight to look at it differently and focus on the storage aspect of water to help us understand the complete water balance in the structures that we’re building. And I think that they’re going to be closer towards what the natural environment is doing in terms of climate and precipitation and the materials that we find in nature. We’ll be able to replicate those processes more closely by understanding this science.
Rob Vassov says incorporating these new ideas about boreal hydrology will be a learning process for everyone from the designers to the heavy equipment operators.
Thanks today to SYNCRUDE
FOR INNOVATION ANTHOLOGY
I’M CHERYL CROUCHER
Guest
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Sponsor
Syncrude
Program Date: 2012-03-01