Regensburg 1998 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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AUV: Abrüstung und Verifikation

AUV 1: Neue Methoden der Minendetektion

AUV 1.1: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 26. März 1998, 09:30–10:30, T

New Technological Approaches to Humanitarian Demining — •Roy F. Schwitters — Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin/Texas, Texas 78712-1081

Authoritative estimates put the number of emplaced landmines at approximately 100 million worldwide, with another 100 million in stockpiles. The majority of these date from wars and nonmilitary conflicts during the last two decades. Annually they maim or kill 25,000 civilians. Demining efforts remove about 100,000 mines annually, but for every mine removed about 20 new mines are emplaced. Humanitarian demining refers to the detection and removal or destruction of landmines from civilian areas, after the conflict has ended; it is fundamentally different from battlefield mine “breaching“. Unlike military countermine operations, humanitarian demining usually has the benefit of an extended period of time, but suffers from lack of funding, equipment, and trained personnel, and is often carried out in remote areas where operation and maintenance of complex equipment is difficult. This talk will review technical issues related to humanitarian demining and will discuss current work and possible new technological approaches.