SihleNala-byte/olifants-water-quality-dashboard

Interactive Shiny dashboard analysing water quality trends in the Olifants River, South Africa # Olifants River Water Quality Dashboard An interactive Shiny dashboard analysing 40+ years of water quality data from the Olifants River catchment in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga,one of South Africa's most polluted river systems due to decades of coal mining and acid mine drainage (AMD). **View Live Dashboard** --- ## Background & Motivation The Olifants River flows through the heart of South Africa's Mpumalanga coalfields. Decades of coal mining, acid mine drainage, agricultural runoff, and inadequate wastewater treatment have severely degraded water quality in this catchment, threatening aquatic ecosystems, downstream communities, and long-term water security. Despite regulatory frameworks being in place, pollution levels have remained persistently elevated for over 40 years. This dashboard was built to make that story visible, transforming raw monitoring data into clear, interactive visual insights accessible to researchers, water managers, policymakers, and the public. --- ## Objectives - Track changes in key water quality indicators across time at two monitoring stations - Identify pollution hotspots, seasonal patterns, and long-term trends - Visualise the acid mine drainage signature through indicator correlations - Provide a reproducible, open-source analysis pipeline in R - Present findings through an intuitive dashboard accessible to non-technical users --- ## Data Source **Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS)** Accessed via the Resource Quality Information Services (RQIS) portal - South Africa's national water monitoring system. Data was downloaded as raw CSV files from the RQIS station inventory for the **B (Olifants East) drainage region**. ### Monitoring Stations | Station Code | Location | Record Period | n | |---|---|---|---| | B11_90410 | Olifants at Wolvekrans — downstream of eMalahleni mines | 1979–2018 | 1,059 | | B11_90412 | Witbank Dam D/S — Witbank Dam weir, eMalahleni | 1983–2024 | 797 | ### Water Quality Indicators | Indic …