Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Data-Driven Decision-Making In Southeast Asia, Mikael Bold, David Avenell

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Automated management information systems to enhance decision-making abilities are becoming more important today. Funding and resources are scarce, but technological developments are making it possible to conduct sophisticated analyses that will enhance planning and prioritization: doing more with less. Centered around optimization and efficiency, the geographic information system (GIS) tools provided by Esri¹ have been crucial in providing MAG (Mines Advisory Group)with decision-making software.

A Virtual Reality Application For The Training Of Deminers, Lynn Al Khansa, Elias Bou Saada, Rachid Maalouf, Mohammed Al-Husseini Ph.D., Ali El-Hajj Ph.D., Mohammed Baydoun Ph.D., Hassan Ghaziri Ph.D.

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

As virtual reality (VR) tools continue to improve, more fields are finding ways of implementing the technology to take advantage of training opportunities that reduce costs, alleviate logistical challenges, and more. Where humanitarian deminers must prepare for dangerous work, VR facilitates training that minimizes the danger while giving trainers a level of control over the different conditions of the training and the ability to easily monitor and instruct the user. For this purpose, the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the Beirut Research and Innovation Center (BRIC) developed a VR application for the basic training of deminers, which is called …

First Steps To Limiting Conflict Pollution In Central Vietnam, Allan R. Vosburgh

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Awareness and concern are growing worldwide regarding pollution resulting from conflicts. In Vietnam, decades of wars have left a legacy of contaminated land and increasingly polluted water. Golden West Humanitarian Foundation (Golden West) believes future success in eliminating explosive remnants of war (ERW) will depend on highly-skilled, dedicated Vietnamese technicians who can apply training, tools, and techniques that mitigate ERW without unnecessarily adding new contaminants to the environment. Open detonations always contribute steel fragments and particles of explosive residue in the ground along with smoke and detonation products in the air. Golden West is helping to develop facilities, technology, and …

Remote Sensing And Artificial Intelligence In The Mine Action Sector, Martin Jebens, Rob White

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Remote sensing and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies are included in discussions of how technology and innovation can improve humanitarian action and international peacekeeping. These technologies have the potential to improve the capacity to assess needs and to monitor changes on the ground and can be useful for both the mine action (MA) and broader humanitarian sectors. Even though remote sensing and AI are not the silver bullet in MA and come with several challenges (e.g., operational and data protection), the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining (GICHD) believe that the integration …

How To Implement Drones And Machine Learning To Reduce Time, Costs, And Dangers Associated With Landmine Detection, Jasper Baur, Gabriel Steinberg, Alex Nikulin Ph.D., Kenneth Chiu Ph.D., Timothy De Smet Ph.D.

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Two rapidly emerging technologies revolutionizing scientific problem solving are unpiloted aerial systems (UAS), commonly referred to as drones, and deep learning algorithms.¹ Our study combines these two technologies to provide a powerful auxiliary tool for scatterable landmine detection. These munitions are traditionally challenging for clearance operations due to their wide area of impact upon deployment, small size, and random minefield orientation. Our past work focused on developing a reliable UAS capable of detecting and identifying individual elements of PFM-1 minefields to rapidly assess wide areas for landmine contamination, minefield orientation, and possible minefield overlap. In our most recent proof-of-concept …

Landmine Clearance And Socioeconomic Development: A Study In Colombia, Oliver Ford, Amazia Zargarian, Eric Keefer

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The HALO Trust (HALO) arrived in Colombia in 2009 and, once accredited, began operations in 2013. HALO is currently the largest civilian humanitarian demining organization in the country, operating in twenty-five municipalities across eight departments.¹ The United States has supported HALO from the outset in Colombia and remains the single biggest donor for demining in the country. In 2019, through U.S. Department of State support, HALO began an innovative study to investigate the causal link between landmine clearance and socioeconomic development in Colombia. The study focused on two municipalities in the south of Antioquia Department—Nariño and La Unión—both of which …

Moving The Story Forward Utilizing Deminer Narratives To Increase Women’S Empowerment In Mine Action And Beyond, Brenna Matlock

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The humanitarian mine action (HMA) sector, as a part of the wider security and peacebuilding field, has made significant gains related to gender equity in field operations. In recent years, women deminers have received increased donor and media attention. As a result, there now exists a wide breadth of texts, literature, documentaries, etc., about women who work to remove landmines and other explosives from the ground. The availability of this new information and recent increased public and media attention generates the following questions: Are the narratives accurate, and do women deminers agree with them? How do women deminers view the …

The Elusive “Just Enough”: Re-Inventing Explosive Hazard Clearance Management In Iraq, Mark Wilkinson Ph.D.

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The Government of Iraq viewed rehabilitation of infrastructure contaminated with explosives during the conflict with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) as a prereqisite to socioeconomic recovery and political stability, which, in turn, established a need for the mine action community to deploy qualified, certified clearance teams as quickly as possible. While these teams could deploy quickly, their reliance on international staff and their associated costs attributable to security and other factors introduced a high overhead business model that became an accepted standard during a first clearance phase from 2015 to 2019, despite the understanding that this …

Developing National Landmine Clearance Capacity In Ukraine, Tobias Hewitt, Ronan Shenhav

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The mine action sector in Ukraine has seen significant growth and progression since the outbreak of hostilities along the eastern border in 2014. Continued development of government capacity is required to respond to the scale of landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) contamination. The HALO Trust (HALO) has supported the Ukrainian authorities to address mine contamination since 2015, through survey and large-scale mine clearance, as well as by assisting state entities such as the State Emergency Services (SES) to strengthen humanitarian mine clearance practices and procedures. HALO’s ongoing capacity-development efforts aim to enhance existing resources in order to establish …

The Exploitation Of Landmines In The Falkland Islands, Colin King

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Throughout the eleven-year mine clearance program in the Falkland Islands, the exploitation (disassembly, detailed analysis, and testing) of live mines was a regular feature. In addition to assessing the condition of the mines in order to optimize the safety and efficiency of the clearance process, there was intense interest in the subject of long-term residual risk.

The rigorous demining program was highly successful, and the Falkland Islands have now been declared clear. However, a mine recently washed up on the shore near the Capital, Stanley, and it’s possible that others will do so over the next few years. It is …

Explosive Ordnance Risk Education In Ukraine During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Anonymous N/A

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

All modern conflicts bring dangers of explosive remnants of war (ERW), including unexploded ordnance (UXO), abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO), improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and/or landmines, and the conflict in eastern Ukraine is no exception. While the conflict is still ongoing, it is currently in a state of relative stalemate, limited to shelling, sniper fire, and small skirmishes along the 280-mile line of contact.¹ However, civilians are still directly at risk as a result of military actions but also indirectly as a result of ERW and landmines, which are scattered across the region due to the frequent shifting of the line …

Key Performance Indicators (Kpis) For Land Release And Stockpile Destruction Operations—Notes On A New Technical Note For Mine Action, Roly Evans, David Hewitson

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In March 2021 the International Mine Action Standards Review Board (IMAS RB) adopted by consensus a new Technical Note for Mine Action (TNMA): Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Land Release and Stockpile Destruction Operations.¹ The TNMA detailed new Common Counting Rules for land release outputs, identified elements of Context Capture at points of data entry and underlined the need for operational staff to prioritize the collection of relevant good quality data. The purpose of this article is to set out why the TNMA was developed and explain certain aspects of its content, particularly those where prolonged debate was necessary in …

Measuring Explosive Munitions Use With Open-Source Data: A New Tool For Enhancing Humanitarian Mine Action, Jonathan Robinson, Christoph Baade

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Since 2011, there has been widespread use of explosive weapons—including conventional weapons, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and landmines—by all sides in the Syrian conflict.¹ As is known from other contexts, a proportion of these either fail to detonate, becoming unexploded ordnance (UXO), or are abandoned by combatants to become abandoned explosive ordnance (AXO).² Long after conflicts have ended, these explosive remnants of war (ERW) endure as multi-generational threats to a community’s population and future development.³

Practical Notes On The Application Of Thermite Systems In Mine Action, Robert Syfret, Chris Cooper

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

There are numerous documents available online relating to the use of thermite systems for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD). However, most of the documents are either scientifically focused or address specific technical questions. This article provides broader practical information for mine action operators at the field and program levels. Although previously employed on a relatively small scale over the last five years, use of thermite as opposed to explosives for the destruction of landmines and explosive remnants of war (ERW) has increased. This has been driven by greater engagement across the sector in countries with unstable security situations, and places with …

Ied Threat Consistency And Predictability In Fallujah: A 'Simple' Model For Clearance, Mark Wilkinson Ph.D.

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

When in control of the area of Iraq north of Baghdad, including the city of Fallujah, ISIS prepared to defend its position from inevitable government counterattack through the widespread use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) laid as defensive obstacles in patterns similar to conventional minefields.¹ The subsequent destruction of bridges over the Tigris River further strengthened the ability of ISIS to defend the city and prevent the civilians trapped within from escaping.

Contamination In Eastern Ukraine: Observations By Osce, Edward Crowther

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Since fighting began in 2014, significant areas of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine have been contaminated by landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO). This article will briefly cover the origin of the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine (SMM) and its mandate, before turning to the types of contamination observed by the SMM in eastern Ukraine. On 21 March 2014, the 57 participating States of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) made a consensus decision to deploy the SMM, and the SMM’s mandate has been extended each year since. The SMM establishes facts and reports …

Minefield Clearance And Casualties - Holland 1945 - Military Operations Research Unit Report No.7, Roly Evans

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In June and July 1945, two Royal Canadian Engineer officers, on their own initiative, carried out a review of the ongoing minefield clearance in Holland. The local military authorities deemed the review to be of significant value and therefore directed the Military Operational Research Unit to take up the study and “carry out a complete survey and analysis of all aspects of minefield clearance and casualties.” The study, entitled Military Operational Research Unit Report No.7 – Minefield Clearance and Casualties, Holland 1945 was initially intended to gather lessons about minefield clearance casualties in relation to combat. It became a significant …

Collaborative Demining Training In Cambodia, Jorge Rivero, Tom Gersbeck

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Since 2016, the Center for Fire and Explosives, Forensic Investigations, Training and Research at Oklahoma State University (OSU) has teamed up with Golden West Humanitarian Foundation to offer an extraordinary training opportunity to military and civilian bomb experts, as well as OSU medical personnel and students. During the second half of January 2018, a group of civilian law enforcement bomb technicians, military explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technicians, medical personnel, a lawyer, and educators visited Cambodia to participate in the OSU Explosives Ordnance seminar conducted by Golden West.

The Challenges Of Humanitarian Mine Clearance In Ukraine, Toby Robinson, Rosanna O'Keeffe

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The HALO Trust has been working in Ukraine since 2015, a year after the hostilities in the east of the country began. Both the ongoing conflict in the Donbas and tensions on the border with Russia have left large areas of land contaminated with landmines and other explosive remnants of war (ERW). In places where the frontline has moved on and the fighting has stopped, mines and other ERW remain, preventing the lives of civilians from returning to normal.

Drones Supporting Mine Clearance In Northern Sri Lanka, Oliver Gerard-Pearse

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The humanitarian mine action (HMA) community’s nascent adoption of commercial drone technology has no doubt made a positive impact within the sector. However, drones go underutilized in HMA and many opportunities as well as potential pitfalls remain. Nurturing and developing this technology to assist in an increasingly diverse and evolving industry will benefit the community greatly. However, drones have only recently drawn the public eye with considerable strides forward in developing technology that is now available and financially accessible to the general public. Popular commercial brands are appealing more to the budding photographers and video bloggers that are able to …

Sepon Supports Uxo Clearance In Laos, Saman Aneka, Micheal Valent

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Sepon mine, owned by the largest international mining company in Laos, MMG Lane Xang Minerals Limited Sepon (LXML), is situated in a remote area of Vilabouly District, Savannakhet Province—one of the most bombed districts in Lao PDR. Over 21,000 people have been killed or injured as a result of unexploded ordnance (UXO) accidents in the post-war period (1974–2018), of which 25 percent were in Savannakhet Province. This legacy brings unique challenges to mining operations, development projects, and agricultural production.

The Hybrid Thermal Lance: A Promising New Technique For The Destruction Of Landmines And Uxo By Deflagration, Donald Pratt, Nick Torbet

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Explosive ordnance can be destroyed by a variety of methods. Destruction in-situ using an explosive charge is generally the preferred means; it is reliable, technically straightforward, and often the safest option. Other techniques include thermite-based tools or low-explosive powered disruptors. However, in a number of current humanitarian mine action (HMA) operating environments, clearance organizations are faced with restrictions on explosive use and/or importation of other energetic materials such as thermite. This may be due to the legitimate security concerns of mine-affected states, or legislative frameworks that do not account for non-military use of explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) tools. This takes …

Shattered Lives And Bodies: Recovery Of Survivors Of Improvised Explosive Devices And Explosive Remnants Of War In Northeast Syria, Médecins Sans Frontières

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

In northeast Syria, fighting, airstrikes, and artillery shelling have led to the displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians from the cities of Deir ez-Zor and Raqqa, as well as rural areas along the eastern bank of the Euphrates River. Now that active fighting has moved toward the Syrian- Iraqi border, the population is beginning to return home. However, explosive remnants of war (ERW), improvised explosive devices (IED), and booby traps (remaining from conflict or planted purposefully in homes) continue to put the returning population at immense risk and further obstruct vital humanitarian access.

Determining The Value Of Uavs In Iraq, Brad Alford, Edward Curran, Shawn Cole

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

As areas of Iraq and Syria controlled by ISIS are liberated, internally displaced persons (IDP) are returning to their homes to face widespread destruction and contamination from deadly improvised explosive devices (IED) implanted by ISIS to maim, kill, and terrorize. Janus Global Operations (Janus) currently operates throughout Iraq, clearing IEDs with a focus on bringing critical infrastructure online to allow IDPs to return safely and resume their lives.

Operating in urban environments has proven challenging due to the high volume of destroyed buildings and associated rubble. In urban environments, operators are exposed to uncertain situations when traditional detection methods can …

Advanced Geophysical Classification Of Wwii-Era Unexploded Bombs Using Borehole Electromagnetics, Laurens Beran, Stephen Billings

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The legacy of World War II-era unexploded bombs (UXB) is an ongoing public safety hazard throughout Europe, and especially in Germany. Large, air-dropped bombs that are a legacy of Allied bombing campaigns are discovered on a weekly basis in Germany, requiring evacuations and disposal efforts costing hundreds of thousands of Euros in some instances.

This article presents recent work done by Black Tusk Geophysics using advanced geophysical classification (AGC) to reliably identify hazardous ordnance at urban sites in Germany. After briefly describing electromagnetic (EM) sensors and data processing required for AGC, this article will discuss survey and design considerations for …

Minefield Sketch Maps In Humanitarian Mine Action, Jesse Hamlin, Luan Jaupi

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Digital technology has the ability to bring minefield artifacts from the field to life. The HALO Trust (HALO) has been using Colortrac large format scanners in several programs around the world, to scan minefield sketch maps from the field, allowing these historical records to be viewed on desktop and laptop computers. Once the maps are scanned, they are geo-referenced in geographic information systems (GIS) to display alongside other layers, and used to allow HALO to build its database of activities through digitization of paper records alongside data that is recorded directly onto tablets.

Lessons From The Past: The Rapid Clearance Of Denmark’S Minefields In 1945, Roly Evans

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

The clearance of the vast majority of Denmark’s minefields during 1945 was remarkable. In just under five months, a force ranging between 750 and 2,600 German prisoners of war (POW) under the supervision of 250–350 Danish officers and noncommissioned officers cleared 1,389,281 mines from an area of 1,103.2 sq km (425.9 sq mi). Such speed of clearance stands in stark contrast with much of modern humanitarian mine action since the 1990s. This article will explain how such speed was possible and why it could not reasonably be repeated today. The article will also identify a number of important lessons that …

The Journal Of Conventional Weapons Destruction Issue 22.1 (2017), Cisr Jmu

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Editorial: The Evolution of PPE in HMA

Feature: BAC in Urban Areas

in the Spotlight: Europe

Field Notes

Research and Development

Field Notes

Ppe Development And Needs In Hma, Andy Smith

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

As written in the International Mine Action Standards (IMAS) 10.30 on personal protective equipment (PPE), “the primary means of preventing explosive injury in the workplace is by the supervised use of demining tools and processes that reduce the likelihood of an unintended detonation.” The IMAS goes on to state that PPE “should be the final protective measure after all planning, training and procedural efforts to reduce risk have been taken.” To date the “final protective measure” has been to provide PPE that is practical but that does not provide full protection.

Clearing Safe Spaces For Drought Affected Communities In Somaliland, Edward Lajoie, Megan Dwyer

The Journal of Conventional Weapons Destruction

Governments and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) working in the Horn of Africa consistently identify conflict and climate change as two primary drivers of insecurity in the region. The HALO Trust’s landmine and explosive remnants of war (ERW) clearance in the Republic of Somaliland over the last 19 years has been at the intersection of these two issues.