Chapters authored
PARADIS: Information Management for Mine Action
The use of information management can increase mine action safety and efficiency. Indeed, mine action includes the collection of a large amount of data coming from different sources and data needed for various processing flows. An information management system enables the manager to monitor and visualise critical variables, to get an overview of the situation, to produce customised reports and to perform geospatial analysis in order to make the best decisions. For the field workers, the system offers secure data collection. A Prototype for Assisting Rational Activities in Demining using Images from Satellites (PARADIS) designed and developed between 1999 and 2007, was an early example of how such a tool may improve the planning of humanitarian demining campaigns. The prototype was designed for the SEDEE-DOVO, the Mine Clearance Service [explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) Battalion] of the Belgian Army. This tool involves a software package working from the country scale to the field scale, software embedded in a geographical information system (GIS). The system was built on two user interfaces, one for the desk office, the other, mobile, for the field. The proof-of-concept of the tool aimed at encouraging similar ideas to help both mine action centres and the various actors involved in mine action in the realisation and coordination of day-to-day activities.
Part of the book: Mine Action
Research at RMA in the Evolving Context of Mine Action
The purpose of this chapter is to put the research of the Royal Military Academy (RMA) in mine action in a historical perspective by providing some background information. The vocabulary used in mine action and the landmine contamination problem are first presented. Formalisation of close‐in detection and of area reduction is then proposed. An overview of the research projects, the involved partners and the objectives as well as the list of PhDs performed at RMA are then provided. The chapter ends with an overview of the book and their link with the cited projects.
Part of the book: Mine Action
Remote Sensing for Non‐Technical Survey
This chapter describes the research activities of the Royal Military Academy on remote sensing applied to mine action. Remote sensing can be used to detect specific features that could lead to the suspicion of the presence, or absence, of mines. Work on the automatic detection of trenches and craters is presented here. Land cover can be extracted and is quite useful to help mine action. We present here a classification method based on Gabor filters. The relief of a region helps analysts to understand where mines could have been laid. Methods to be a digital terrain model from a digital surface model are explained. The special case of multi‐spectral classification is also addressed in this chapter. Discussion about data fusion is also given. Hyper‐spectral data are also addressed with a change detection method. Synthetic aperture radar data and its fusion with optical data have been studied. Radar interferometry and polarimetry are also addressed.
Part of the book: Mine Action