Landmines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW, e.g. cluster ammunition) are a threat to human life and economic development of nations emerged from conflicts. Land Release in Mine Action is a staged process of ever closer investigation of suspected hazardous areas, aimed at discriminating between uncontaminated and truly contaminated areas. The former are directly released to the population, while the latter are cleared (i.e. explosives are removed) before release. Within a given budget the objective of land release is not so much to find and remove as many mines/ERW as possible, rather to achieve a maximum socio-economic benefit for affected populations. Therefore priority setting is a critical aspect of land release efforts. Using the most cost efficient tool to achieve a given objective along the land release process is also essential. By providing the proper information, in a timely manner, anywhere it is needed, space assets could significantly benefit land release actions.
The Internal Symposium for Humanitarian demining took place on April 26th -29th 2010 in Sibenik, Croatia. It was co-organised by the Croatian Mine Action Center (CROMAC) and Center for Testing, Development and Training (HCR). This annual event is one of the major gatherings of the demining community. ESA participated in the event to outreach about the benefits of space assets for mine action. It was also an opportunity to make the audience aware of the open tender. A plenary presentation showing highlights of the feasibility study ITT was delivered by ESA.
This presentation, together with the paper supporting it can be retrieved here.
ESA also co-moderated a workshop on the use of new technologies as decision support in defining Mine Suspected Areas.
The conclusion of this workshop are provided here.