Steps to setting up your DigiTARP
Step 1. Identify weather conditions that cause problems
This is the most important step and can done in several ways.
Firstly we need to identify what risks can be proactively managed. For example, dust, noise and/or odour. What can be done to mitigate the risk and what time is needed to implement the controls to mitigate the risk?
If you have a good historical database of monitoring data or a detailed complaints register (a couple of years at least), we can review the data to identify the potential causes of complaints or high events. This is typically done by us (using the Katestone Air Quality Consultants) and can also be done using recent dispersion modelling (for example at the time of undertaking and EIS or development application).
Alternatively, based on a review of your site activities, and the location of sensitive receptors we can configure a TARP based on our 30-plus years of working with various industries. Or if you have one developed already, we can also use that.
Step 2. Set your Triggers to monitor
The triggers can include a range of weather variables or an index that we have developed (e.g. The Dust liftoff index). They can also include the direction towards sensitive receptors, which is very useful for managing dust, noise and odour.
Step 3. Allocate tasks and notify specific people
If you would like to send a message (or a list of tasks) when a particular event is triggered these need to be pre-populated against each alert triggered, with the time horizon.
Your TARP will look something like this:
Trigger | Priority | Forecast horizon | Actions |
|---|---|---|---|
High Dust Risk (dust liftoff index >50) and wind direction towards town (170-190) | Immediate action (SMS and email) | next 24 hours | Notify teams of high dust risk towards town for today Apply additional controls to activities in southern pit |
High Dust Risk (dust liftoff index >50) and wind direction towards town (170-190) | Immediate action (SMS and email) | Day 2 | Notify teams of high dust risk towards town for tomorrow Reschedule dusty activities in southern pit Schedule extra water truck to south boundary haul roads for tomorrow |
Extreme Dust Risk (dust liftoff index >100) | Watch and act (email only) | Day 3-7 | Notify teams of possible extreme dust risk for later in the week |
High Dust Risk (dust liftoff index >50) and wind direction towards town (170-190) | Advice (email only) | Day 3-7 | Notify teams of possible high dust risk towards town for later in the week |
Step 4. Let Kite do its thing!
Kite will now continuously monitor all your triggers and send notifications (with or without a list of tasks) to those who need to know.
Step 5. Continuous improvement
We recommend that at least once every couple of years a review should be undertaken to ensure the triggers are correctly set and that the control actions undertaken have been effective in minimising events. This can be done by the Katestone Air Quality team using all the data generated by Kite and onsite data, if available.