The study area is located in a Swiss alpine valley at the border between Switzerland and France and is situated in Valais. It is delimited by the hydrologic catchment of the river “La Vièze de Morgins”. The catchment area is situated in the Municipality of Troistorrents and of Monthey. Its population is approximately 4500 inhabitants.

It has been shown over many years that the efficient management of water resources is almost impossible without a database containing historical and up-to-date information and data of high integrity. When it comes to groundwater the situation is even worse as groundwater was often not seen as a viable resource, and if it was used, then in many cases, it was poorly managed due to the lack of monitoring and poor data collection. This has changed in recent years as groundwater now forms a large part of the used water resources in several communities, towns and metros.

The year 2020 will forever be synonymous with the Covid-19 pandemic and the immeasurable impact it has had on all our lives. During this time, there was one avenue that reigned supreme: technology. Whether it was Zoom calls or Netflix, online consultations or video conferencing at work, technology took charge. In light of this, GCS (Pty) Ltd started exploring ways that technology could assist with the most common problem identified in the Water and Environmental sectors, which is the management of large volumes of geodata. Thus, the invention of eSymon.

Imrie, S