Soil information requirements for humanitarian demining: the case for a soil properties database

Yogadhish Das; John E. McFee; Kevin L. Russell; Guy Cross; T. John Katsube

doi:10.1117/12.486306

11 September 2003 Soil information requirements for humanitarian demining: the case for a soil properties database

Yogadhish Das, John E. McFee, Kevin L. Russell, Guy Cross, T. John Katsube

Proceedings Volume 5089, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets VIII; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.486306
Event: AeroSense 2003, 2003, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Landmines are buried typically in the top 30 cm of soil. A number of physical, chemical and electromagnetic properties of this near-surface layer of ground will potentially affect the wide range of technologies under development worldwide for landmine detection and neutralization. Although standard soil survey information, as related to conventional soil classification, is directed toward agricultural and environmental applications, little or no information seems to exist in a form that is directly useful to humanitarian demining and the related R&D community. Thus, there is a general need for an information database devoted specifically to relevant soil properties, their geographic distribution and climate-driven variability. A brief description of the various detection technologies is used to introduce the full range of related soil properties. Following a general description of the need to establish a comprehensive soil property database, the discussion is then narrowed to soil properties affecting electromagnetic induction metal detectors - a problem of much restricted scope but of immediate and direct relevance to humanitarian demining. In particular, the complex magnetic susceptibility and, to a lesser degree, electrical conductivity of the host soil influence the performance of these widely used tools, and in the extreme instance, can render detectors unusable. A database comprising these properties for soils of landmine-affected countries would assist in predicting local detector performance, planning demining operations, designing and developing improved detectors and establishing realistic and representative test-evaluation facilities. The status of efforts made towards developing a database involving soil electromagnetic properties is reported.

Citation Download Citation

Yogadhish Das, John E. McFee, Kevin L. Russell, Guy Cross, and T. John Katsube "Soil information requirements for humanitarian demining: the case for a soil properties database", Proc. SPIE 5089, Detection and Remediation Technologies for Mines and Minelike Targets VIII, (11 September 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.486306

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